.i)HOOD 



H: fc W R Li) 



IVP.F.R.A.S. 




J 



TliB 



CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD; 



% Sxmpk %ctoxxni 



-OF- 



MAN IN EARLY TIMES. 



-BY- 



EDWARD CLODD, F.R.A.S: 



" As a child that cries. 
But, crying^ knows his father near.'' 

IN MEMORIAM. 



Second ^MERicAN Edition. 



ASA K, BUTTS & CO., 36 DEY STREET. 
1873. 



NEW YORK : 

Mcbmnc, Makbat A Cn., Printiri, 

16 Di'k Str«kt. 






"■■ ■ t- r 








3 



PREFACE. 



For the information of parents and others into whose 
hands this book may fall, it may be stated that it is an at- 
tempt, in the absence of any kindred elementary work, to 
narrate, in as simple language as the subject will permit, 
the story of man's progress from the unknown time of his 
early appearance upon the earth, to the period from which 
writers of history ordinarily begin. 

That an acquaintance with the primitive condition of 
man should precede the study of any single department of 
his later history is obvious, but it must be remembered 
that such knowledge has become attainable only within 
the last few years, and at present enters but little, if at 
all, into the course of study at schools. 

Thanks to the patient and careful researches of men of 
science, the way is rapidly becoming clearer for tracing 
the steps by which, at ever-varying rates of progress, dif- 
ferent races have advanced from savagery to civilization, 



and for thus giving a completeness to the history of man- 
kind which the assumptione of an arbitrary chronology 
would render impossible. 

As the Table of Contents indicates, the First Part of 
this book describes the progress of man in material things, 
while the Second Part seeks to explain his mode of ad- 
vance from lower to higher stages of religious belief. 

Although this work is written for the young, I venture 
to hope that it will afford to older persons who will accept 
the simplicity of its style, interesting information concern- 
ing primitive man. 

In thinking it undesirable to encumber the pages of a 
work of this class with foot-notes and references, I have 
been at some pains to verify the statements made, the 
larger body of which may be found in the works of Tylor, 
Lubbock, Nilsson, ^Yaitz, and other ethnologists, to whom 
my obligaiions are cordially expressed. 

I am lully conscious how slenderly each department of 
human progress has been dealt with in this work, but in 
seeking to compass a great subject within a small space, it 
has been my anxiety to break the continuity of the story 
as little as possible. 

E. C. 

133 BRErKNOCK Road, London, 
iMciviber, 1872. 



CONTENTS. 



PART 1. 



SECT. PAGE. 

I. Introductory 7 

II. Man's First Wants 13 

III. Man's First Tools 15 

ly. Fire 19 

V. Cooking and Pottery 20 

YL Dwellings 21 

VII. Use of Metals 23 

VIII. Man's Great Age on the Earth ... 26 
IX. Mankind as Shepherds, Farmers, and 

Traders 29 

X. Language 33 

XI. Writing 37 

XII. Counting 38 

XIII. Man's Wanderings from his first Home . 40 

XIV. Man's Progress in all Things .... 42 
XV. Decay of Peoples 43 



VI 



PART II. 

XVI. Introductoky 46 

XVII. Man's First Questions . 48 

XVIII. Myths .50 

XIX. Myths about Sun and M(k»n 51 

XX. Myths about Eclipsk^ 52 

XXI. Myths about Stars .53 

XXII. Myths about the Earth and Man . 56 

XXIII. Man's Ideas about the Soul .... 57 

XXIV. Belief in Magic and WrrcHCRAPr . . 60 
XXV. Man's Awe of thk Unknown . . ^1 

XXVI. Fetish- Worship 68 

XXVII. IlXJLATRY 64 

XXVIII. Nature-Woushu 65 

1. Water- Worship 66 

2. Trei>Worshii' 67 

3. Animal- Worshu' t)7 

XXIX. Polytheism, or Belief in Many God8 . 68 

XXX. Dualism, or Belief in Two Gods . . 72 

XXXI. Prayer 74 

XXXII. Sacrifk i 75 

XXXIII. MoNOTHLiSM, OR BeLIEF IN OnE GoI> 76 

XXXIV. Three Six^RiKs ABoiTT Abraham M 
XXXV. Man's Belief in a Future Life >4 

XXXVI. Sacred BooK^ . S6 

XXXVII. Conclusion ^^ 



THE 



CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 



PART I. 



I. INTRODUCTORY. 



Everything in this wide world has a history ; that is, 
it has something to tell or something to be found out 
about what it was, aiid how it has come to be what it is. 

Even of the small stones lying in the roadway, or about 
the garden, clever men have, after a great deal of pains- 
taking, found out a history more wonderful than all the 
fairy stories you have been told ; and if this be true, as 
true it is, of dead stones and manv other thin<>:s which 
cannot speak, you may believe that a history stranger 
still can be written about some living things. 

And it is the history of the most wonderful living 
thing that this world has ever seen that I want to tell 
you. You will perhaps think that I am about to describe 
to you some curly -haired, big-tusked, fierce-looking mon- 



8 THE CHILDHOOD OF THF WORLD. 

Bter that lived on the earth thou^nndb ot vcarB ngo, for 
children (and some grown-up people too) are apt to think 
that things are wonderful only wlien they are big, which 
is not true. To show you what I mean : the beautiful 
eix-sided wax cells which the bee makes are more corions 
than the rougli lint wliicli the chimpanzee — an African 
monkey — piles together ; and the tiny ants that keep 
plant-lice and milk them just as we keep cows to give us 
milk, and that catch the young of other ants to make 
slaves of them, are more wonderful than the huge and 
dull rhinoceros. 

Well, it is about yourself that I am going to talk, for 
I want you to learn, as far as we are able to lind out, how 
it is that you are what you are, and where you are. Re- 
member, I do not say how your are, or why you are, for 
God alone knows that, and He has told the secret to no 
one here, although, maybe, He will tell it us one day 
elsewhere. 

Perhaj^s you have thiMight tjiat there is nothing very 
wonderful in being where you are, or in possessing the 
good things wliich you enjoy ; that people have always had 
them, or if not, that they had (Hily to buy them at the 
shops; and that from the iirst day man lived on the 
earth he could cook his food, and have ices and dessert 
after it ; could dress himself well, write a good hand, 
live in a fine house, and build sj)lendid churclM'> u ith 
stained glass windows, just au he does uow-a-day.- 

It you have thought so, you are wTong, and I wish to 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WOKLD. 9 

set you right, and show yon that man was onc^e wild and 
rough and savage, frightened at his own shadow, and still 
more frightened at the roar of thunder and- the quiver of 
lightning, which he thought were the clapping of the wings 
and the flashing of the eyes of the angry Spirit, as he 
came flying from the sun ; and that it has taken many 
thousands of years for man to become as wise and skillful 
as we now see him to be. 

For just as you had to learn your A, B, C to enable 
you to read at all, and just as you are learning things 
day by day which will help you to be useful when you 
grow up and are called upon to do your share of work in 
this world, where all idleness is sin, so man had to begin 
learning, and to get at facts step by step along a toil- 
some road. 

And instead of being told, as we are told, why a cer- 
tain thing is done, and which is the best way to do it, he 
had to find out these things for himself by making use of 
the brains God had given him, and had often to do the 
same thing over and over again, as you have sometimes 
with a hard spelling lesson, before he was able to do it 
well. 

Now there are several reasons for the belief that man 
was once wild and naked, and that only by slow degrees 
did he become clothed and civilized. For instance, 
there have been found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
America, but especially in Europe, thousands of tools 
and weapons which were shaped and used by men ages 



10 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

Upon ages ago, and which arr Just like the tools and 
weai)on8 need by 8Hvage8 living now-H-days in variouK 
parte of the earth, and among whom no traces of a civil- 
ized past can he found. 

Far across the wind-tossed t>eas, far away in such places 
as Australia, Borneo, and Ceylon, islands which you 
must learn to find out on a map of the world, or on a 
globe, there live at this day creatures so wild that if you 
saw them you would scarcely believe that they were hu- 
man behigs and not wild animals in the shape of men, 
covering themselves with nmd, feeding on roots, and 
living in wretched huts or in woods imder the shelter of 
trees. The word "savage" means one rcho lives in the 
woods. 

In telling yuu huw the earliest men lived I shall want 
you to go back with me a great many years, even before 
the histories of different countries begin. For men had 
to learn a great deal before they were clever enough to 
write histories of themselves and live together as we Eng- 
lish people do, making a natioii; many, many centuries 
— and a century is a hundi-ed years — passed away before 
they left any trace behind to tell us that they lived, otlier 
than tlie tools 1 am about to describe, or broken pottery 
and s(;ratchings on bones. 

Yes, I shall take you i)ast not only the Conquest, but 
past the day when in this England — then eddied Britain — 
the wild jieople dwelt in mud hut«, lived on fruits and tin 
tiesh of wild animals, stained their bodies with the blue 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 11 

juice of the woad-plant, and worshiped trees and the 
sun and moon, even to the day when no sea flowed be- 
tween England and France, when tliere was no German 
Ocean and no EngHsh Channel ! 

For you nmst take now on trust what by and by you 
will be able to prove tlie truth of for yourself, when you 
learn lessons from the rocks and hills themselves, instead 
of from books about them, that this world is, like the other 
worlds floating wdth it in the great star-tilled spaces, very, 
very old and ever-changing, — so old that men make all 
sorts of guesses about its birthday; and that, unlike us 
who become widnkled and gray, this dear old world 
keeps ever fresh and ever beautiful, brightened by the 
smiling sunlight of God playing over its face. 

Now, it would be making another guess — and, as we 
shall never know whether we have guessed right, what is 
the use of guessing ? — to say how many yearsi^ man has 
lived here. It is enough for us to know^ — and this is no 
guess — that the good Being wlio made the world put man 
on it at tlie best and tittest time, and that He makes 
uothing in vain, whether it be rock, tree, flower, flsh, 
bird, beast, or man. 

But althoiigli God left man to find out very much for 
himself, He gave him the tools wherewith to work. 
Eyes wherewith to see, ears where\vith to hear, feet 
wherewith to walk, hands wheremth to handle, — these 
were given for the use of the man himself, by which I 
mean the mind, soul, or spirit, w^hich is man. Perhaps 



12 THE CHTLPHOOn OF TFTF WORIJ). 

WO TTiftv best call it the tliinkin^^ part, booauBO the word 
** man'' comos from a very old word which means to thxnk\ 
therefore a man is one who thinks. When names were 
given to things, some word was fixed upon which best de- 
scribed the thing. " Brute" comes from a word meaning 
raw or roughs and so man is distinguished from the brutes 
which are in some things like him, and from the plants 
and trees, which are like him in that they breathe, by 
being knowTi as the thinking ])eing. 

If I sometimes break off my story to explain the 
meaning of certain words, you will one day learn to 
tliank me for it, because, as you liave already seen, there 
is a reason, and sometimes a very beautiful reason, for the 
names which things bear; and it is not less strange than 
true, that words often tell us more of the manners and 
doings of people who, silent now, used to speak them, 
than we c*i find out from tlie remains they liave left be- 
hind them. 

In one case, the words they used to speak are the only 
clue we have to the fact that a people who were our fore- 
fathers once lived in Asia. They have left no traces (so 
far as we can find out) of tlie tools which they used, of 
the houses they lived in, or of writings on rocks or bricks, 
and yet we know that they must have been, because the 
words they si>okc have come down to us, and are really 
used by us in dilfcreut lorms and with different meanings, 
of which I will give'you a proof. 

You know tliat the girls in a family are called the 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 13 

^^ daughters." That word comes frora a word very much 
hke it, bv which these people of old, — the Aryans, as we 
have named them — called their girls, and which means a 
milking-viaid. Now, we know by this that they had 
got beyond the savage state, and that they must have 
kept goats and cows for the milk which they gave. 
Thus much a simple word tells us. In the same way, if 
the English people had died off the face of the earth, 
and left no records behind them other than remains 
of the words they uttered, we should know that English 
girls had learned to sj)i7i^ because in course of time un- 
married women were called spinsters. 



I have now to tell you that the first men were placed 
here wild and naked, knowing nothing of the great 
riches stored up in the earth beneath them, and only 
after a long time making it yellow with the waving 
corn, and digging out of it the iron and other metals so 
useful to mankind. 

The first thought of man was about the wants of his 
body ; his first desire was to get food to eat, fire for 
warmth, and some place for shelter when night came on, 
and wild beasts howled and roared around him. 

See how, in tho first step he had to take, man is imhke 
the brutes. 

Wherever God has placed the brute. He has given it 
the covering best fitted for the place in which it lives. 



14 THE OHILDHCX)!) oK THK WORLD. 

and has Bupplicnl its proper focnl cloHe at hand. But 
God ha*> placed man lien* naked, and left him to seek for 
himself the food and ( lothing best suited to that jmrt of 
the world in which he lives. If God had given man 
thick, hair-covered skin he could not have moved from 
phice to phute with comfort, and so man is made naked, 
but given the power of reasoning about things, and act- 
ing by reason. The lirute remains tlie brute he always 
was, whih' man never sto[)s, ])ut improNo u[)(>n what 
those wlio lived before liim have done. 

Man has not the piercing eye of the eagle, but he has 
the power of making instruments wliicli not only bring 
into view stars whose light has taken a thousand years 
to reach the earth, but which also tell us what metals are 
in the sun and other stars ; nuin has not the swiftness 
of the deer, but he has the power of making steam-en- 
gines to carry him sixty miles in an liour; man has not 
the strength of the horse, but he lias put machines to- 
gether which can do the work of a Imndred Ikm-scs. 

Whatever power man has, whether of body or of mind, 
improves by use. The savage, who has to make con- 
stant use of his bodily powers to secure food, is by prac- 
tice, fleeter of foot and quicker of sight than civilized 
man who, using the power of his mind, excels the savage 
in getting knowledge and making good and also bad use 
of it. 

1 have said that the first things man wanted were food, 
warmth, and shelter. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 16 

Ages before he lived here, the streams of fresh water 
had run down tlie nionntain sides and tlu'ough the val- 
leys they had lieiped to make, and they were nmning still, 
never resting, so that man had little trouble in quench- 
ing his thirst, and would of course keep near the sti-eam. 
But the food he needed was not to be had so easily. The 
first things he fed on would be wild fruits and berries, 
and the first place he lived in would be under some tree « 
or over-hanging rock or in some cave. He might wish 
to eat of the fish that glided past him in the river, and 
of the reindeer that bounded past him into the depths of 
the forest ; but these were not to be had without weap- 
ons to slay them. 

There are few things which the wonderfully made 
hand of man cannot do, but it must have tools to work 
with. A man cannot cut wood or meat without a knife, 
he cannot write without a pen, or drive in nails without 
a hammer. 

III. MAJSr's FIRST TOOLS. 

One of the first things which man needed was there- 
fore some sharp-edged tool, which must of course be 
harder than the thing he wanted to cut. He knew 
nothing of the metals, although some of them, not the 
hardest, lay near the surface, and he therefore made use 
of the stones lying about. Men of science (that is, men 
toho k7ww^ because " science " comes from a word mean- 
ing to know) have given the name " Age of Stone " to 



16 THE CHILDHOOD OF THI WORLD. 

that far-off time when stone and such things as bone, 
wood, and horn, were mnde into various kinds of tools. 
Flints were very imicli used, because, by a hard blow, 
flakes like the blade of a knife could be broken off them. 
Other flints were shaped to a point, or into rough sorts 
of hammers, by cliii)j)ing with a rounded pebble, or other 
stone. Many of them are in form like an almond, hav- 
ing a cutting edge all round. Their sizes differ, some 
being six inches long ;ind three inches wide, while others 
are rather larger. 

These oldest stone weapons, unsharpened by grinding 
and unpolished, have l^een cliiefly found in places known 
as the " drift ;" that is, buried underneath the gravel, 
and clay, and stones which have been drifted or carried 
down by the rivers in their ceaseless flow. 

In these early days of man's history liuge wild animals 
shared Europe with liim. There were mammoths, or 
woolly-haired elephants, rhinoceroses, liippopotamuses; 
there were cave-lions, cave-bears, cave-hyaenas, and other 
beasts of a much hirger size than are foimd in the world 
at this day. 

That they lived at the same time that man did is cer- 
tain, because under layers of earth their bones have been 
found side by side with his, and with the weapons which 
lie made. 

Year after year man learnt to shape his tools and 
weapons better, until really well-formed spear-heads, 
daggers, hatchets, hammers, and other implements were 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 17 

made, and at a far later date he had learnt the art of 
polishing them. Remember that first in what is called 
the " old Stone Age " men learnt to chip stones, and 
afterwards, in what is called the " New^er Stone Age," 
to grind and polish them. 

The better-shaped tools and weapons' have been chiefly 
found in caves, which, as books about the earth will tell 
you, were hollowed out by water ages before any living 
thing dw^elt liere. These caves were used by men not 
only to live in, but also to bury their dead in ; and 
from the dififerent remains found in and near them, it is 
thought that feasts were held when the burials took 
place, and that food and weapons w^ere put with the 
dead because their friends thought that such things were 
needed by them as they traveled the long journey to 
another world. I should tell you that but very few 
bones of primitive man have been found, and this is not 
to be wondered at when we remember how much more 
lasting is the work of man than are his remains, and also 
that from an early period the burning of dead bodies 
was common. 

The great help to man of the weapons I have described 
to you against the attacks of the wild animals is easily 
understood, for with them he was able not only to de- 
fend himself and his family, but to kill the huge creat- 
ures, and thus get food for the mouths that were always 
increasing hi number. That he did kill and eat them, ^ 



18 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

and clothe hiniBelf in their 8kin8 and make their jaw- 
bones into strong weapons, is certain. 

It is surprising to think liow many tilings the first men 
had to do with the stones they roughly shaped. They cut 
down trees, and perhaps by the aid of tire scooped them 
out to make canoes, for it was j)lain to them that wood 
floated Oh tlie water ; they killed their food, cut it up, 
broke the bones to suck out the marrow ; cracked sea- 
shells to get out the fish inside thcni, besides doing 
many other things witli wliat would sccni to us blunt 
and clumsy tools. 

While we are talking about this Stone Age I should 
tell you that there are found in different parts of the 
world stone ruins of very great age and various sizes, some 
built of stone pillars covered with a flat stone for roof, 
others built to a point like the great pyramids of Egypt. 

These, like the caves, were used to l>urv the dead in. 
Vjut sometimes were Iniilt to mark the place where some 
great deed was don«, or where something very wonder- 
ful liad happened. The piling together of stones was an 
easy and lasting way of keeping such things fresh in 
meirs minds, just as we erect statues in honor of our 
great men, or build something in nunnory of their acts 
of bravery, nobleness, or love. When built as tombs 
for t lie dead, their wizc depended upon the rank of the 
person to be laid within them. The circles of standing 
Btones — like that at Stonehenge — are thought to have 
been built for worship of some kind. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 19 

You have learnt, then, that during the time when 
weapons and tools of stone were made men lived a wild, 
roaming life, eating roots, berries, and fruits, and, in a 
raw state, the flesh of such animals as they killed, and, 
sad to say, some of them eating the flesh of their fellow- 
man ; clothing themselves, little or much as they needed, 
in the skins of animals, which they sewed together with 
bone needles, using the sinews for thread ; and now we 
have to speak about the first mode of getting a fire. 

IV. FLBE. 

There are a great many curious stories which profess 
to give an account of the way in which fire was first ob- 
tained, but they are a part of that g-uess-work about 
things which is ever going on, and which brings us no 
nearer the truth. Men have ever been quick to make 
use of what we call their " wits " (w^hich word comes 
from an old word used by our forefathers, meaning 
understanding) or their common sense, and common 
sense taught them that fire was to be had by 
rubbing two pieces of wood together. In making 
their flint weapons sparks would fly, but they saw that 
the flints themselves could not be set on fire. AVhen 
they felt cold they rubbed their hands together and 
warmth came to them. They tried what could be done 
by nmning a blunt pointed stick along a groove of its 
own making in another piece of wood, and they found 



80 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

first that each got heated, then that eparke flew, then 
that flame burst out. 

Travelers tell us tliat savages can produce fire in a 
few seconds in this way, and that in the northern seas 
of Europe the islanders find a bird so fat and greasy 
that all they have to do is to draw a wick through its 
body, and on lighting it the bird burns away as a candle 
doe8. 

And fire was as useful in the days I am writing about 
as travelers find it now in giving protection from the 
wild beasts at night, so that man liad many reasons for 
keeping his fire always burning by heaping on it the 
wood which was ready to his hand in such abimdance. 

V. COOKING AND POTTERY. 

At first men ate flesh raw, as some northern tribes do 
now, but afterwards they would learn to cook it, and this 
they did by simply putting the meat direct to the fire. Af- 
terwards they would dig a hole and line it with the hard 
hide of the slain animal, fill it with water, put the meat 
in, and then make stones red-hot, dropping them in 
until the water was hot enough and the meat cooked. 
Then a still better way would be found out of boiling the 
food in vessels set over the fire, which were daubed out- 
side with clay to prevent their being burnt. Thus men 
learnt — seeing how hard fire made the clay — to use it by 
itself and to shape it into rough pots, which were dried 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 21 

either in the sun or before the fire, and hence arose the 
beautiful art of making earthenware. 

VI. DWELLINGS. 

Besides living in caves, holes were dug in the ground, 
a wall being made of the earth which was thrown out, 
and a covering of tree-boughs put over it. Sometimes 
where blocks of stone were found lying loosely, they 
were placed together, and a rude, strong kind of hut 
made in this way. 

There have been found in lakes, especially in Swiss 
lakes, remains of houses which were built upon piles 
driven into the bed of the lake. The shape of many of 
these piles shows that they were cut with stone hatchets. 
and this proves that people lived in this curious fashion 
in very early times. It is thought that they did so to be 
freer from the attacks of their enemies and of wild beasts. 

These lake dwellers, as they are called (and they not 
only lived thus in the Stone Age and later ages, but 
there are people living in the same manner in the East 
Indies and other places at this day), made good use of 
their stone hatchets, for they not only cut down trees, 
but killed such animals — and very fierce they were — as 
the bear, wolf and wild boar. They had learned to fish 
with nets made of flax, which they floated with buoys of 
bark, and sank with stone weights. 

Besides what we know about the dwellings of men in 
^rly times, there have been found on the shores of Den- 



2*2 THK OfflLOffOOD OF THK WottLD. 

iiiiirk, Scotljind and rlst^wiicrr, i-m>rmou8 heapft of what 
are <'alled '' kitclien-middens." These were really the 
feeding-places of the people who lived on or about those 
coasts, and are made up of piles of shells, largely those 
of the oyster, mussel, periwinkle, &c., on which they 
fed. With these there have also been found the bones 
of stags and other animals, and also of birds, as well as 
flint knives and other things. 

I said at starting that the three things which man 
would first need were food, fire and slielter, and, having 
told you how these were procured by him, you are per- 
haps wondering how those people of the Stone Age 
spoke to each other and wliat words they used. This we 
shall never know, but we may ])e sure that tliev lunl 
some way of making their thoughts known one to an- 
other, and that they learned to speak and write and 
count little l)y little, just as they learned everything else. 
They had some idea of drawing, for bones and pieces of 
slate have been found with rough sketches of the mam- 
motli, l)nll, and other bet^sts scratched on them. These 
old-world pictures witness to tlie truth, that man is 
greater than brutes in tliis as in otlii^ things, since 
no brute has yet been known to di'aw a picture, write an 
alphabet, or learn how to make a fire. 

But I shall have something to say about speaking and 
writing bv ;ith1 l)y. 



tHE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 23 

VII. USE OF METALS. 

In (course of time, some man, wiser than his fellows, 
made use of his quicker eye and more active brain to 
discover the metals which the earth contained ; and this 
marks a great gain, for which we cannot be too thankful. 
When we think about the thousand different uses to 
whicli metals are put — ^how without them no ship big 
enough and strong enough to cross the ocean could have 
been built, or steam-engine to speed us along constructed 
— we learn how enormous is their value to us. It is cer- 
tain that if man had never discovered them he would 
have remained in a savage, or, at least, a barbarous state. 

Through all the story of his progress we see that he 
never went to the storehouse of the earth in vain. There- 
in were treasured up for him the metals which he needed 
when stone was found to be too blunt and soft for the 
work he wished to do ; therein the vast coal-beds which 
were laid open to supply the cosy fires when wood grew 
scarce. 

Gold, which means the yellow^ bright metal (from gul7\ 
yellow), was most likely the first metal used by man. Its 
glitter would attract his eye, while, unlike some other met- 
als, it is found in rivers, and on various rocks on the 
surface of the earth. It has to be mixed with another 
metal to be hard enough for general use ; and in its na- 
tive state would be therefore easily shaped into orna- 
ments. Savage and polished people are alike in this love 
of ornament. Necklaces of shells and amber made in 



•24 THE CHILDHOOD OF THK WORLD. 

the Stone Age have been found; and to this day gavages 
think of decoration before dress. One very common way 
of making themselves smart, as they think, is by marking 
tlieir face, body, and limbs with curved lines, made 
with a pointed instrument, tilling in the marks with col- 
or. This is called tattooing. If this shows that people 
have in all places and times loved to look tine, altliough 
they have gone throug pain and discomfort as the price, 
it also shows that the love of what is beautiful, or of 
what is thought to be l)eautiful, is theirs, and that is 
another thing which the brute has not. No herds of 
cows ever leave oti* feeding to admire a sunset ; and you 
never saw a horse or a monkey witli Wire lit u]) with de- 
light at the sight of a rainbow. 

Copper is a metal wliich came into early use, as, like 
gold, it is often found unmixed with anything else, and 
its softness enables it to be worked into various shapes. 
Where it was scarce, and tin could be had, tire was made 
use of to melt and mix the two togetlier, forming the 
pretty, hard, and useful metal called bronze. By pour- 
ing the molten mass into a mould of stone or sand, weap- 
ons of the sluipe wanted would be made. 

The aire when tlie metals I have named were used 
is called the "Age of Bronze." A very long time pass- 
ed before iron was smelted, that is, melted and got away 
from the ore (or vein running through the rock) with 
which it is found, because this is very hard w(.rk, and 
needs more skill than men had then; but when they suo- 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 25 

ceeded in smelting and monlding it, it took the place of 
bronze for making spear-heads, swords, hatchets, &c., 
bronze beino- used for the handles and for ornaments, 
many of which — such as earrings, bracelets, and hair-pins 
— have been fomid among the ruins in the Swiss lakes. 

Silver and lead were used later still. 

You have thus far learnt that by finding river-beds, 
caverns, and elsewhere, various tools, weapons, ornaments, 
and other remains, some of them at great depth, and all 
mthout doubt made by man, it is known that he must 
have lived many thousands of years before we have any 
records of him in histories written on papyrus (which 
was the reed from which the ancients made their paper — 
hence the name " paper"), or painted on the walls of 
tombs. 

By the way of marking the steps in man's progress 
his early history is divided into three periods, named 
after the things used in them, as thus : — 

1. The Age of Stone, which, as stated at page 17, is 

also divided into the Old Stone Age and the 
Newer Stone Age. 

2. The Age of Bronze. 

3. The Age of Iron. 

When you can get to the British Museum, go into the 
room where the " British Antiquities " are kept, and 
there you will see for yourself the different flint and 
metal tools and weapons which I have described. 

How many years passed between the shaping of the 



26 THE CHILDHOOD OP THE WOELD. 

first flint and the moulding of the first bronze weapon 
is not known. We are sure that men used stone before 
they used bronze and iron, and that some tribes were in 
the Stone Age when other tribes had found out the vahie 
of metals. The three Ages overlap and run into each other 
'' like the three chief colors of the rainbow." 

For example, although some of the lake-dwellings, 
about which I have told you, were built by men in the 
Stone Age, a very large number belong to the Bronze 
Age ; and the relics whic^h have been brought to light 
show how decided was the progress which man had made 
The lake-dwellers had learned to cultivate wheat, to store 
up food for winter use, to weave garments of flax, and to 
tame the most useful animals, such as the horse, the 
sheep and the goat. Man had long before this foimd out 
what a valuable creature the dog is, for the lowest tribes 
who lived on the northern sea-coasts have left proof of 
this in the bones found among the shell heaps. 

In what is known as the Age of Iron very rapid pro- 
gress was made; and while the variety of pottery, the 
casting of bronze coins, the discovery of glass, and 
a crowd of other new inventions show what great advance 
was made in the thinffs man used, they show also how 
fast man himself was rising from a low state. 

VIII. man's great age on the earth. 
At this point of the story you will, perhaps, be asking 
a question, to which I will givethe best answer that can 
at present be found. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

You will ask how it is that we know these remains of 
early man to be so very, very old. 

To make my reply as clear as possible, I will describe 
to you one of the many places in which the old bones 
:ind weapons have been found. 

There is a large cavern at Brixham, on the south 
coast of Devonshire, which was discovered fom^teen years 
ago through the falling in of a part of the roof. The 
floor is of stalagmite, or particles of lime, which have 
been brought down from the roof by the dropping of 
water, and become hardened into stone again. Sta- 
lagmite comes from a Greek word which means a droj). 
In this floor, which is about one foot in thickness, were 
found bones of the reindeer and cave-bear, wliile below 
it Avas a red loamy mass, fifteen feet thick in some 
parts, in which were buried flint flakes, or knives, and 
bones of the mammoth. Beneath this was a bed of 
gravel, more than twenty feet thick, in which flint flakes 
and some small bones were found. Altogether,* more 
than thirty flints were found in the same cave with the 
bones of bears and woolly elephants ; and as they are 
known to have been chipped by the hand of man, it is 
not hard to prove that he lived in this country when 
those creatures roamed over it. 

But what proof have we, you ask, that the bones of 
these creatui'es are so very old % Apart from the fact 
that for many centuries no living mammoth has been 
seen, we hav^. the finding of its bones buried at a goodly 



28 THE OHILDHOOD OK THK WORLD. 

depth ; and as it is certain tliat no one would trouble to 
dig a grave to put them in, there must be some other 
cause for the mass of loam under which they are found. 

There are several ways by wliich the various bones 
may have got into tlie cave. The creatures to which 
they belonged may have died on the hillside, and their 
bones have been washed into tlie cave ; or they may 
have sought refuge, or, what in the case I am now de- 
scribing seems most likely, lived therein ; but, be this as 
it may, we have to accoimt for the thirty-five feet of loam 
and gravel in which their remains are Inu'ied. 

The agent that thus covered them from view for long, 
long yeai-s, is that active tool of nature which, before the 
day when no living thing was upon the earth, and ever 
since, has been cutting through rocks, opening the deep 
valleys, shaping the highest mountains, hollowing out 
the lowest caverns, and \vhich is carrying the soil from 
one place to another to form new lands where now the 
deep sea rolls. It is icater which carried that deposit into 
Brixham cavern and covered over the bones, and which, 
since the day that mammoth and bear and reindeer lived 
in Devonshire, has scooped out the surrounding valleys 
100 feet deeper. And although the time wiiich water 
takes to deepen a channel, or eat out a cavern, depends 
upon the speed with which it flows, you may judge 
that the quickest stream works slowly to those who 
watch it, when I tell you that the river Thames, flowing 
at its present rate, takes eleven thousand seven hundred 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 29 

and forty years to scoop out its valley one foot lower ! 
Men of science have therefore some reason for believing 
that the flint weapons were made by men who lived 
many thousands of years ago. 

" A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday 
when it is past, and as a watch in the night." 

Science, in thus teaching us the great age of the earth, 
also teaches us the Eternity of the Ageless God; and like- 
wise those vast distances about which astronomers tell us 
make the universe seem a fitter temple for Him to dw^ell 
in than did the old, cramped notions of a flat earth, for 
whose benefit alone the sun shed his light by day, and 
the moon and stars their light by night. Science illu- 
mines with new beauty the grand thoughts of the star- 
watching poet of old, who sang, " If I ascend up into 
heaven, Thou art there ; if I make my bed in the unseen 
world, behold. Thou art there." 

IX. MANKIND AS SHEPHERDS, FARMERS, TRADERS. 

From being a roving, wild, long-haired savage, gnaw- 
ing roots, or crouching behind rock or tree to pounce 
upon his prey, uncertain each morning whether night 
would not set in before he could get enough to eat, man 
had become a shepherd or tiller of the soil, not only 
learning the greatness of the earth in which he had been 
placed, but also beginning dimly to feel his own greatness 
above the beast of the field and the fowl of the air. 

Some part of mankind, finding how useful certain ani- 



30 THE CHlLPHOOn OF THE WORLD. 

malB were for the iiulk and flesh which they gave as 
food, jind for the skins, especially of their young ones, 
which conld be made into soft clothing, had learned to 
tame and gather them into flocks and lierds, moving 
with them from place to place [wherever the most grass 
could be li:i<l. These men were the first shepherds or 
herdsmen, living a nomad (whicli means wa7idering) 
life, dwelling in tents because they coidd be easily re- 
moved. 

This WHS the kind of life that Abraham lived thousands 
of years ago, and that the Arabs and other wandering 
tribes still live at this day. 

While some loved the shepherd's or herdsman's life, 
others chose a more settled state, becoming farmers or 
tillers of the eartli. The word earth means the 
plowed. 

To do this wurk well, the rude stune implements of 
their forefathers were useless, and implements made of 
the best and liardest metals were needed. Then, as they 
remained in one place, .they woidd not be content vnih 
log huts as men were in tlic Stone Age, or with tents as 
thi' nomads were, but would have their houses well built, 
with i>laces like stables and barns in wliich t(» lodge their 
cattle and store up their (M)rn. 

All the sunny days woid<i be wanted for tlieir tield- 
work, and they would tlierefore lie glad to employ others 
who could build their houses and make their tools. 
Thus one after another diflferent trades would arise and 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 31 

be carried on, which would bring people together for 
mutual help and gain ; thus houses would multiply into 
villages, villages would become towns, and towns would 
grow into cities. 

The different classes of people would unite together 
for protection against their enemies, and either all would 
learn the art of war, or would select some of the bravest 
and strongest among them to become the army to defend 
the land. Some one man, the best and ablest they could 
iiud, would be chosen to carry out the laws which the 
people agreed to make for the well-being of all. 

For in early as well as in later times, the bad passions 
and jealousies of men broke out and caused those desola- 
ting wars which have darkened so many bright spots in 
tin's world. It is certain that the tillers of the soil 
and the dwellers in towns would be more inclined to 
a peaceful and quiet life than the roving tribes or their 
chieftain ^\dth his followers and herds and flocks, who 
would often seek to gain by force what they coveted. 

Not that these were always to blame, but they would 
be the more likely of the two to " pick a quarrel." Dis- 
putes arose between them about the ownership of the 
land ; the nomads, who loved the lazy ease of a pastoral 
life more than the hard work of tool-making or house- 
building, would want to share some of the good fruits 
which the farmers were making the earth to yield, or 
some of the bright, sharp edged weapons which the 
metal-workers were moulding, and in various ways 



32 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

-had hlcKui;' as i>eoi>k' call it, wduld 1k» stirred, which 
would end in figliting. The Btronger would conquer the 
weaker, seize upon or lay wubtc their land, and make 
slaves of such of the prisoners as they thought it worth 
while to spare. It was an age, like numy ages since, 
when no tender feelings ruled in the heart of man, hut 
when the " golden rule " was not, and the harsh, stern 
law was this : 

'' That tliey sliall tako who have the ix)wer, 
And they shall keep who can." 

But wars do not last for ever, and men would find thatit 
was, after all, better to hve in friendship and peace. So 
they would trade together ; the earth would yield the 
farmer more food than he needed, and he would be glad 
to barter with it, giving some of it to the herdsman in ex- 
change for cattle, and to the toobnaker in exchange for 
tools, each of whom would be very glad to trade with him. 

Then as bartering grew, it was found very awkward 
and cumbersome to caiTy things from place to place, es- 
pecially if they were now and then not very much want- 
ed, and people would agree to make use of something 
which was handy to carry, steady in value, and that 
did not spoil by keeping. So, whenever they could, men 
fixed upon pieces of metal, first casting bronze into coins, 
and then using gold and silver, which being scarcer than 
other metals are worth more. We learn from the paint- 
ings at Thebes, and from ancient history, that gold and 
silver were counted as wealth in early times. Abraham 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 33 

is said in the Book of Genesis (which you will read when 
you are older) to have been " very rich in cattle, in silver, 
and in gold." The word ^'pecuniary," which is used in 
speaking of a man's riches, comes from the Latin word 
pecus^ which means cattle^ and shows that formerly a 
man's wealth was sometimes reckoned by the cattle he 
had. Another proof of the meaning that a word will 
hold. 

And this reminds me that I have to tell you a little 
about speaking, writing, and counting. 

X. LANGIIAOE. 

In what way the wonderful gift of language came to 
man we do not know, and the wise of many ages have 
tried in vain to find out. 

The same God who made the beautiful organs in man 
by which he can utter so many different sounds, gave 
him the power of creating names for the things which 
he saw, and words for the thought which dwelt in his 
mind. 

There are some words which we can account for, 
such as those which imitate sounds, as when we say the 
clock " ticks," or call the " cuckoo " and the " peewit " 
after the sound they make. But this explains only a 
portion of the vast number of words which make up a 
language, and which spring from roots deep do^m, too 
deep for us to track. 

Man at first had very few words, and those were short 



34 THE OHILPHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

ones, and in makinp known liit thou^^hts to others, he 
used signb \ try nmch ; '' gesture language," as it has 
been called. We do the same now ; for in shaking the 
head to mean '' no,'' in nodding it to mean " yes," and in 
shaking hands in proof that we are joined in friendsliip, 
we speak in gesture-language, and would have to do it 
a great deal if we were traveling in some country of 
which we did not know the language. 

There are very few things that cannot be expressed by 
signs or gestures, and among the ancients entire plays 
were performed by persons called pantomimes (which 
word means ivntators of all things)^ who acted not by 
speaking, but wholly by mimicry. 

A story is told of a king who was in Kome when iSero 
was emperor, and who, having seen the w^onderful mim- 
icry of a pantomime begged him as a present, so that he 
might make use of him to have dealings with the nations 
whose languages he did not know. We have now so 
many words that we need use signs but very little, if at 

all. 

Just as all the races of mankind are thought to have 
come from one family, so the different languages which 
they speak arc thought to have flowed from one source. 

There :.re three leading streams of language, and I 
shall liJivo'to fnv»t<' m ^'♦•u- ^\•,\v^^ i»:in)r> in trlliiiir von about 

them. 

It was thought some \ -o that Hebrew, which is 

the language in which the sacred books of the Jews 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 35 

(known to us as the Old, Testament) are written, was the 
parent, so to speak, of all other languages, but it has 
since been found through tracing words to their early 
forms that 

1. Sanskrit, in which the sacred books of the Brah- 
mans are written, and which was a spoken 
tongue in the time of Solomon and Alexander 
the Great, but which has been a "dead " or un- 
spoken language for more than two thousand 
years ; 
Zend, in which the sacred books of the Parsees 

(or so-called fire-worshipers) are written ; 
Greek, the language of Greece ; 
Latin, the language of the ancient Romans; 
and nearly all the other dialects and languages of India 
and Europe, are children of the Indo-European, or Aryan 
family. 

I told you something about these Aryans at page 13, and 
will add that through their language we know that they 
had learned "the arts of plowing and making roads, of 
sewing and weaving, of building houses, and of counting 
as far as one hundred." The ties of father, mother, 
brother, and sister, were hallowed among them, and thev 
called upon God, who "is Light," by the name still heard 
in Christian churches and Indian temples. That name is 
Deity. It comes from a very ancient word by which these 
people spoke of the sky, and which was afterwards ap- 
plied to Him who dwells in the sky. For "beyond sun, 



36 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

and moon, and stars, and all which changes, and will 
changes, was the clear blue sky, the boundless firmament 
c»f heaven/' There man in every age has fixed the dwell- 
ing-place of God who is Light, and in whom is no dark- 
ness at all. 

2. The 8C(Mmd division of languages includes the 

Hebrew; the Arabic, in wliich the Koran, the 
sacred book of the Mohammedans, is wTitten ; 
and the languages on the very old monimients 
of Phoenicia, Babylon, Assyria, and Carthage. 

3. The third division includes the remaining languages 

of Asia, witli the exception of the Chinese, 
which stands by itself as the only relic of the 
first forms of human speech, l)eing made up of 
words of one syllable. 
The ancient language of Britain is now found only in 
some parts of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, and the 
foundation of our present language, which now contains 
above one himdred thousand words, is tlie same as that 
spoken on the coast of Germany. It was brought over 
by Angles, Saxons (hence Anglo-Saxons), Jutes and other 
tribes from the Continent. Anglo-Saxon is the mother- 
tongue of our present English, to whicli in various forms 
Latin words have been added, together with a few words 
from the languages of otlier nations. 

For teacliing you the different changes in the English 
language, as well as for an interesting list of words bor- 
rowed from the Arabic, Turkish, Chinese, &c., the best 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 37 

books to help you are Dr. Morris's " Historical Outlines 
of English Accidence," and Archbishop Trench's " Eng- 
lish Past and Present." 

I am afraid I have confused you a little in this talk 
about language, but you can hear it another time over 
again when you are older and better able to learn the 
importance belonging to the study of the wonderful gift 
by which we are able to talk to people in various lan- 
guages, and read in ancient books the history of man's 
gropings after God. I want to lead you on to feel and 
know that the study of words is a delightful way of 
spending time, and that the dictionary, wliich is thought 
by most people to be a dry book, is full of poetry and 
history locked up in its words, which the key of the wise 
will open. 

XI. WRITING. 

It is much easier to tell you how men learned to 
write. 

The use of writing is to put something before the eye 
in such a way that its meaning may be known at a 
glance, and the earliest way of doing this was by a pic- 
ture. Picture-wi'iting was thus used for many ages, and 
is still found among savage races in all quarters of the 
globe. On rocks, stone slabs, trees, and tombs, this 
way was employed to record an event, or tell some 
message. 

In the course of time, instead of this tedious mode. 



38 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

men learned to write Bigns for certain words or Bounds. 
Then the next Btep was to separate the word into letters, 
and to agree upon certain signs to always represent cer- 
tain letters, and hence arose alphabets. The shape of 
the letters of the ali)habet is thought by some to bear 
traces of the early picture-writiufr. To sliow you what 
is meant, Aleph, the Urst letter of tlie Hebrew alphabet, 
means an ox^ and tlie sign for that letter was an outline 
of an 07^ s head, 

Tlie signs used by astronomers for the sun, moon and 
planets ; the signs I, II, III, for one, two, and three, are 
proofs that if jActure-writing is of value to man in a civil- 
ized state, it must have been of greater value to him, 
and much more used by him the farther we search back. 
We still speak of signing our name, although we have 
ceased to use a sign or mark, as was done when few 
could write. 

XIL COUNTING. 

The art of Counting is slowly learned by savage 
tribes, and at this day some are found that cannot reckon 
beyond four, or that, if they can, have no words for 
higher figures. 

All over the world the fingers have been and are used 
as counters, and among many tribes the word for "hand" 
and " five " is the same. 

This may be taken as a common mode by wliich the 
savage reckons : 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 89 



One hand 



5 



Two hands or half a man . . . . 10 
Two hands, and one foot . . . . 15 
Hands and feet, or one man - . . 20 
We do the same, as shown in the word digit^ which is 
the name for any of the figm^es from one to nine, and 
comes from the Latin digitus^ which means 2^ finger; 
while counting by fives and tens enters into all our deal- 
ings. One early way of counting was by pebbles, the 
Latin for which is calculi^ and we preserve this fact in 
our use of the word calculate ; just as, when we tie a 
knot in our handkerchief to remind us of something we 
fear to forget, we are copying the ancient plan of count- 
ing with knotted cords. 

This story of the World's Childhood has been chiefly 
learned by studying the lessons taught by those traces 
of man which are found in the north-western part of 
Europe, but it is believed that he first lived elsewhere, 
and afterwards traveled here. For in thejdays known 
as the Ancient Stone Age, when Britain and L-eland 
were joined to the main land, and great rivers fiowed 
through the valleys which are now [covered by the Ger- 
man Ocean [and English Channel, and [when woolly- 
haired elephants and rhinoceroses roamed about in the 
pine forests of what is now England and France, Europe 
was very much colder than it is now, and it is thought 
that man did not live there before these huge creatures. 
You will one day learn from the beautiful story which 



40 THB CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

roclcR and rivers are ever telliner, what vast changes have 
happened over all the earth, in proof of whicli you may 
think about what I liave already said, to which may be 
added, tliat the sea once swept over the place where you 
live, and ages hence may flow over it again. 



XIII. man's wanderings from his first home. 

It is believed tliiit man lived at first somewhere near 
the middle of Asia, and from thence those who came after 
hun spread on all sides, some settling in the rich plains 
watered by tlie river Nile, to become the forefathers of 
Egyptian kings, others wandering to the bleak shores of 
Northern Europe to bectome the forefatliers of the Sea- 
kings. 

As the climate in which people live affects the color of 
their skins, so the progress of any race, as well as the 
kind of life which they live, depend very much on the 
land they dwell in, and this will explain why some races 
have progressed so much more than others, and even be- 
come their rulers. Wliere there were rich, grassy j)lain8, 
the people gatliered flocks and lierds, wandered from 
place to place in search of good pasture, and made scarce- 
ly any advance. Wliere a fruitful soil and balmy air 
were to ])e liad, there people would settle as farmers and 
workers in wood and metals, gathering both knowledge 
and wealth, while those wlio lived on islands and by the 
sea-coasts became adventurous and bold. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 41 

It is not the object of this narrative to take you be- 
yond the .time when histories usually begin, and what you 
have learned does not therefore relate to any single tribe 
or nation, but to the growth of mankind as a whole. I 
will, however, sketch in a few lines the course which the 
leading races of mankind took after they left their sup- 
posed common home. 

The tribes who wandered into the northern parts of 
Europe lived for ages a wild roving life ; and when they 
had so far advanced as to find out, or, what is more like- 
ly, learn from other races, the use of metals, and then to 
apply their powers in building ships stout and strong 
enough to brave the open sea, they became the terror of 
quiet people, and you vdll learn from old English history 
how they pounced one after another upon this island, 
plundering wherever and w^hatever they could. 

Other tribes settled down in Persia ; on the sea-board 
of Palestine ; in Egypt ; and w^ere the roots from which 
grew those mighty nations whose kings had reigned for 
many years before the birth of Abraham. Other tribes 
leapt across the narrow straits between Asia and America, 
and wandered over that vast New World, those who 
traveled southwards becoming builders of cities whose 
ruins tell of their past importance. 

Long before the great empires of Greece and Rome, 
there arose a people known to us as the Jews, whose his- 
tory fills so many books of the Bible, and who were de- 
scended from a chieftain named Abraham. I shall have 



42 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

some interesting stories to tell yon further on concerning 
this good and noble man. 

Abraham left his native land and moved with his 
slaves and cattle to Palestine. His descendants after- 
wards settled in Egypt, which was then a great corn- 
}delding country, where they grew to large numbers, and 
were treated kindly dui-ing the lifetime of Joseph, whose 
touching story is told in the Book of Genesis. After his 
death they were, however, made slaves and used very 
harshly. A good, learned, and heroic man named Moses? 
who, although he had been brought up by the king's 
daughter as her son, burned with righteous anger for the 
wrongs of his oppressed countrymen, rose at the head of 
them and delivered them. How they journeyed to Pal- 
estine, li^dng under chiefs or judges ; killing, in the cruel 
manner of that age, men, women, and children ; how they 
grew and prospered, but, falling into ^dce, became weak 
and enslaved : then rose again for a time, until when 
Jesus Christ lived they were subject to the Roman Em- 
pire, you will learn by and by from Scripture histories. 

XIV. man's progress in all things. 

The early history of man shows us how wonderful his 
progress has been when we compare the Age of Stone 
with our present happy lot. Not only in house-building, 
cooking, pottery, clothing, various uses of metals, have 
rude ways been improved upon, but also m his knowl- 
edge of the earth beneath and the stars around has 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 43 

the progress of man been vast. The lightning and the 
wind, the rushing stream, daily work for him, and their 
force is chained to do his bidding. He has already seen 
a good depth, and may see farther yet, into the mystery 
of the stars, and every day he is spelling out some sen- 
tence here and there in the great book of Nature. 

One would like to know and thank those men of the 
past who laid the foundation of all that has since been 
done. For he who first chipped a flint was the father of 
all sculptors ; he who first scratched a picture of man or 
mammoth was the father of all painters ; he who first 
piled stones together was the father of all builders of ab- 
beys and cathedrals "; he who first bored a hole in a rein- 
deer's bone to make a whistle, or twanged a stretched 
sinew, was the father of all musicians ; he who first 
rhymed his simple thoughts was the father of all poets ; 
he who first strove to learn the secret of sun and star was 
the father of all astronomers. 

XV. DECAY OF PEOPLES. 

I have called this "simple account of man in early 
times" by the title of the " Childhood of the World," 
because the progress of the world from its past to its 
present state is like the growth of each of us from child- 
hood to manhood or womanhood. 

Although the story has, on the whole, flowed smoothly 
along, we must not leave out of sight the terrible facts 
which have sometimes checked the current. History, in 



44 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

books and in ruins, teaches that there have been tribes 
and nations (some of the nations so great and splendid 
that it seemed impossible for them ever to fall) which 
have reached a certain point, they decayed and died. 
And since man has lived so many thousands of years on 
the earth, there must have risen and fallen races and 
tribes of which no trace will ever be found. 

The cause of the shameful sin and crime of which 
every place in this world has been more or less the scene, 
has sometimes been man's ignorance of what is due to 
his God and his fellow-man, but more often his willful 
use of power to do evil, forgetting, in his folly and 
wrong-doing, that the laws of God change not, that Sin 
is a fair-dealing master and pays his servants the wages 
of death. They have disobeyed the law of love, and 
hence have arisen cruel wars and shocking butcheries ; 
captures of free people and the crushing of their brave 
spirits in slavery. They have disobeyed the laws of 
health, and the plague or "black death" has killed tens 
of thousands, or gluttony and drunkenness have destroy- 
ed them. They have loved money and selfish ease (for- 
getting the eternal fact that not one of us can live by 
bread alone, but that we live our lowest if that be the 
end and aim of our life), and their souls, lean and 
hungry, have perished. 

But although the hand on the clock-face of progress 
has seemed now and then to stand still, or even to go 
back, it is a great truth for our comfort and trust that 



THE CHILDHOOI) OF THE WORLD. 45 

the world gets better and not worse. There are some 
people who are always sighing for what is not or cannot 
be ; who look back to the days of their childhood and 
wish them here again ; who are ever talking of the 
" good old days " when laughter rang with richest mirth, 
when work was plentiful and beggars scarce, and life so 
free from care that wrinkles never marked the happy 
face. Do not listen to these people ; they have either 
misread the past or not read it at all. Like some other 
things, it is well-looking at a distance, but ill-looking 
near. We have not to go far back to the "good old 
times," to learn that kings and queens were worse lodg- 
ed and fed and taught than a servant is nowadays. 

It is very foolish and wrong to either wish the past 
back again, or to speak slightingly of it. It J&Ued its 
place ; it did its appointed work. Even out of terrible 
wars blessings have sometimes come, and that which men 
have looked upon as evil has been fruitful in good. We 
cannot see the end as well as the beginning : God alone 
can do that. The true wisdom is to see in all the steps 
of this earth's progress the guiding hand of God, and to 
believe that He will not leave to itself the world which 
for His own pleasure he has created. For 
''nothing walks with aimless feet." 

To you and to every one of us, God gives work to do ; 
and if He takes it away, it is that others may do it bet- 
ter, and so the well-being of all be secured. 

Let us strive to do thoroughly the work which we find 



46 THE CHILDHOOD Oli' THE WORLD. 

nearest to our hand ; though we may think it small and 
trifling, it is not so in the sight of Him who made the 
dew-drop as well as the sun, and who looks not so much 
upon the thing we have to do, as upon the way and the 
spirit in which we do it. 



PART II. 



XYI. INTRODUCTORY. 



In seeking to show you by what slow steps man came 
to believe in one all-wise and all-good God, I wish to 
fix one great truth upon your young heart about Him ; 
for the nobler your view of Him is, the nobler is your 
life likely to be. 

Now you would think your father very hard and cruel 
if he loaded you with all the good things he had, and 
sent your brothers and sisters, each of them yearning for 
his love and kisses, to some homeless spot to live uncared 
for and unloved, and to die unwept. 

And yet this is exactly what some people have said 
that God does. They have spoken of Him, who has 
given life to every man, woman, and child, without 
power on their part to take or refuse what is thus given, 
as being near only a few of His creatures, and leaving 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 47 

the rest, feeling a soul-hunger after Him, to care for 
themselves and to never find Him. 

Believe that He who is called our Father is better, 
more just, more loving, than the best fathers can be, and 
that He " is not far from any one of us." 

In those dim ages through which I have led you, God, 
whose breath made and ever makes each of us " a living- 
soul," was as near the people who lived then as He is 
near us, leading them, although they, like ourselves, often 
knew it not. The rudest, and to us in some things most 
shocking, forms of religion, were not invented by any 
devil, permitted by God to delude men to destruction, 
but were, as we learn from savage races now, the early 
struggles of man from darkness to twilight — for no man 
really loves the darkness — and from twilight to full day. 

Around him was the beauty and motion of life ; before 
him very often the mystery of death, for there were weep- 
ing fathers and mothers in those old times over dead little 
children, and friends stood silent and tearful beside their 
dead friends in those days as they do in these ; and do you 
think that man would sit himself down to frame a willful^ 
cunning lie about the things which awed him ? 

Although the ideas which these early men had about 
what they saw and felt were wrong, they were right to 
them^ and it was only after a long time when some shrewd 
man, making bad use of his shrewdness, pretended to 
know more than God will ever permit man to know here, 
that lies and juggling with the truth of things began. 



4:8 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

I tell you this because I want you to feel a trust in God 
that nothing can take away ; and how much you will 
need this trust, when your heart comes to feel the sin and 
sorrow of this world, the years that are before you will 
reveal. 

XYIL man's first questions. 

It was not long after man had risen from his first low 
state, and the chief wants of his body were supplied, that 
he would begin to act the man still more by thinking 
(see page 12), and then would hear some voice within, 
telling him that eating and drinking were not the chief 
ends for which life had been given him. 

He saw around him the world with its great silent hills 
and green valleys; its rugged ridges of purple-tinted 
mountains, and miles of barren flat ; its trees and fra- 
grant flowers ; the graceful forms of man, the soaring 
bird, the swift deer and kingly lion ; the big, ungainly- 
shaped mammoth, long since died out ; the wide scene, 
beaming with the colors which came forth at the bid- 
ding touch of the sunlight, or bathed in the shadows 
cast by passing clouds ; he saw the sun rise and travel to 
the west, carrying the light away ; the moon at regular 
times growing from sickle-shape to full round orb ; * 
then each night the stars, few or many, bursting out like 
sparks struck off" the wheels of the Sun-Grod's chariot, or 

* Moon means the measurer^ h^nce our word months *' for time was meas- 
ured by nights and moons long before it was reckoned by days and suns 
and years," 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 49 

like the glittering sprays of water cast by a ship as she 
plows the sea. 

His ears hstened to the different sounds of Nature ; 
the music of the flowing river ; the roar of the never-si- 
lent sea ; the rustle of the leaves as they were swept by 
the unseen fingers of the breeze ; the patter of the rain 
as it dropped from the great black clouds ; the rumble 
of the thunder as it followed the spear-like flashes of 
light sent from the rolling clouds : these and a hundred 
other sounds, now harsh, now sweet, made him ask — 
What does it all mean ? Where and what am I ? 
Whence came I ; whence came all that I see and hear 
and touch ? 

Man's first feeling was one of simple wonder ; his sec- 
ond feeling the wish to find out the cause of things, 
what it was that made them as they were. 

All around him was Nature (by which is meant that 
which brings forth)^ great, mighty, beautiful; was it not 
all alive, for did it not all move ? 

In thinking how man would seek to get at the cause 
of what he saw, we must not suppose that he could rea- 
son as we do. But although he could not shape his 
thoughts into polished speech, common sense stood by 
to help him. 

He knew that he himself moved or stood still as he 
chose, that his choice was ruled by certain reasons, and 
that only when he willed to do anything was it done. 
Something within governed all that he did. Natui-e 



50 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

was not still ; the river flowed, the clouds drifted, the 
leaves trembled, the earth shook; sun, moon, and stars 
stayed not : these then must be moved by something 
within them. 

Thus began a belief in spirits dwelling in everything 
— ^in sun, tree, waterfall, flame, beast, bird, and serpent. 

XVIII. MYTHS. 

In seeking to account for the kind of life which seem- 
ed to be (and really was, although not as he thought of 
it) in all things around, man shaped the most curious no- 
tions into the form of myths^ by which is meant a fanci- 
ful story founded on something real. If to us a boat or 
a ship becomes a sort of personal thing, especially when 
named after anyone ; if " Jack Frost," and '* Old Father 
Christmas," which are but names, seem also persons to 
the mind of a little child, we may readily see how natural 
it is for savages to think that the flame licking up the 
wood is a living thing whose head could be cut off; to 
believe that the gnawing feeling of hunger is caused by 
a lizard or a bird in the stomach ; to imagine that the 
echoes which the hills threw back came from the dwarfs 
who dwelt among them, and that the thunder was the 
rumbling of the Heaven-God's chariot wheels. 

Myths have changed their form in difierent ages, but 
they remain among us even now, and live in many a 
word still used, the flrst meaning of which has died out. 
To show you what is meant : we often speak of a cross 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 51 

or sullen person being in a bad humor ^ which word rests 
on a very old and false notion that there were four moist- 
m-es or humors in the body, on the proper mixing of 
which the good or bad temper of a person depended. 

In telling you a little about myths I cannot attempt 
to show you where the simple early myths become later 
on stiffened into the legends of heroes, with loves and 
fears and hates and mighty deeds, such as make up so 
much of the early history of Greece and Rome, for that 
you will learn from other and larger books than this. 

XIX. MYTHS ABOUT SUN AND MOON". 

Among many savage tribes, the sun and moon are 
thought to be man and wife, or brother and sister. One 
of the most cm^ious myths of this kind comes from the 
Esquimaux, the dwellers in the far North. It relates that 
when a girl was at a party, some one told his love for 
her by shaking her shoulders after the manner of the 
country. She could not see who it was in the dark hut 
so she smeared her hands with soot, and when he came 
back she blackened his cheek with her hand. When a 
light was brought she saw that it was her brother, and 
fled. He ran after her and followed her as she came to 
the end of the earth and sprang out into the sky. There 
she became the sun and he the moon, and this is why the 
moon is always chasing the sun through the heavens, and 
why the moon is sometimes dark as he turns his blacken- 
ed cheek towards the earth. 



52 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

In all the languages known as Teutonic the moon was 
of the male gender and the sun of the female gender. 

Among other people, and in later times, the sun is 
spoken of as the lover of the dawn, who went before him, 
killing her with his bright spear-like rays, while night 
was a living thing which swallowed up the day. If the 
sun is a face streaming with locks of light, the moon 
is a silver boat, or a mermaid living half her time under 
the water. When the sun shone with a pleasant warmth 
he was called the friend of man ; when his heat scorched 
the earth he was said to be slaying his childi^en. You 
have perhaps heard that the dark patches on the moon's 
face, which look so very much like a nose and two eyes, 
gave rise to the notion of a '^ man in the moon," who was 
said to be set up there for picking sticks on a Sunday. 

XX. MYTHS ABOUT ECLIPSES. 

There is something so weird and gloomy in eclipses of 
the sun and moon, that we can readily understand how 
through all the world they have been looked upon as the 
direct work of some dreadful power. 

The Chinese imagine them to be caused by great dra- 
gons trying to devour the sun and moon, and beat drums 
and brass kettles to make the monsters give up their 
prey. Some of the tribes of American Indians speak of 
the moon as hmited by huge dogs, catching and tearing 
her till her soft light is reddened and put out by the blood 
flowing from her wounds. To this day in India the na- 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 53 

tive beats his going as the moon passes across the sun's 
face, and it is not so very long ago that in Europe both 
eclipses and rushing comets were thought to show that 
troubles were near. 

Fear is the daughter of Ignorance, and departs when 
knowledge enlightens us as to the cause of things. 

We know that an eclipse (which comes from Greek 
words meaning to leave out oy forsake) is caused either 
by the moon passing in such a line between the earth 
and the sun as to cause his light to be in part or alto- 
gether hidden, left out for a short time, or by the earth 
so passing between the sun and moon as to throw its 
shadow upon the moon and partly or wholly hide her 
light. Our fear would arise if eclipses did not happen 
at the very moment when astronomers have calculated 
them to occur. 

XXI. MYTHS ABOUT STARS. 

There is a curious Asian myth about the stars which 
tells that the sun and moon are both women. The stars 
are the moon's children, and the sun once had as many. 
Fearing that mankind could not bear so much light, each 
agreed to eat up her children. The moon hid hers away, 
but the sun kept her word, which no sooner had she 
done than the moon brought her childi^en from their 
hiding-place. When the sun saw them she was filled 
with rage, and chased the moon to kill her, and the 
chase has lasted ever since. Sometimes the sun comes 



54 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

near enough to bite the moon, and that is an eclipse. 
The sun, as men may still see, devours her stars at dawn, 
but the moon hides hers all day while the sun is near, 
and brings them out at night only, when the sun is far 
away. 

The names still in use for certain clusters of stars and 
single stars, were given long ago when the stars were 
thought to be living creatures. They were said to be 
men who had once lived here, or to be mighty hunters 
or groups of young men and maidens dancing. Many of 
the names given show that the stars were watched with 
anxiety by the farmer and sailor, who thought they ruled 
the weather. The group of stars known to us as the Plei- 
ades were so called from the word ^Z<2m, which means to 
sail^ because the old Greek sailors watched for their rising 
before they ventm'ed on the ocean. The same stars are 
called the digging stars by the Zulus, who live in South 
Africa, because when they appear the people begin to 
dig. A very good illustration of the change which a 
myth takes is afibrded by these same stars, which are 
spoken of in Greek mythology as the seven daughters of 
Atlas (who was said to bear the world on his shoulders), 
six of whom were wedded to the Gods, but the seventh 
to a king, for which reason Merope, as she is named, 
shines the faintest of them all. 

The stars were formerly believed to govern the fate of 
a person in life. The temper was said to be good or bad, 
the nature grave or gay, according to the planet which 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 55 

was in the ascendant, as it was called, at birth. Several 
words in our language witness to this old belief. We speak 
of a " disaster," which means the stroke or blast of an 
unlucky star ; aster being a Greek word for star. We 
call a person " ill-starred" or '^ born under a lucky star." 
Grave and gloomy people are called " saturnine," because 
those born under the planet Saturn are said to be so dis- 
posed. Merry and happy-natured people are called 
" jovial," as born under the planet Jupiter, or Jove. Ac- 
tive and sprightly people are called '' mercurial," as born 
under the planet Mercury. Mad people are called 
" lunatics." Luna is the Latin word for moon, and the 
more sane movements of the insane were believed to de- 
pend upon her phases or appearances of change in form. 
Sun, moon, and stars were all thought to be fixed to 
the great heavens (which means heaved or lifted up, and 
comes from an Anglo-Saxon word, hefan^ to lift), be- 
cause it seemed like a solid arch over the flat earth. To 
many a mind it was the place of bliss, where care and 
want and age could never enter. The path to it was said 
to be along that bright-looking band across the sky known 
to us as the " Milky Way," the sight of which has given 
birth to several beautiful myths. I should like to stay 
and tell you some of them, but we must not let the 
myths keep us too long from the realities. 



56 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

XXII. MYTHS ABOUT THE EARTH AND MAN. 

The waterspout was thought to be a giant or sea-ser- 
pent reaching from sea to sky ; the rainbow (which books 
about light will tell you is a circle, half only of which 
we can see) was said to be a living demon coming down 
to drink when the rain fell, or, prettier myth, the heaven- 
ladder or bridge along which the souls of the blest are 
led by angels to Paradise, or the bow of God set in the 
clouds, as Indian, Jew, and Fin have called it; the 
clouds were cows di'iven by the children of the morning 
to their pasture in the blue fields of heaven ; the tides 
were the beating of the ocean's heart ; the earthquake 
was caused by the Earth-Tortoise moving underneath ; 
the lightning was the forked tongue of the storm-demon, 
the thunder was his roar ; volcanoes were the dwelling- 
places of angry demons who threw up red-hot stones 
from them. 

Man's sense of the wonderful is so strong that a belief 
in giants and pigmies and fairies was as easy to him as 
it has been hard to remove. The bones of huge beasts 
now extinct were said to have belonged to giants, 
whose footprints were left in those hollows in stones 
which we know to be water-worn." The big loose stones 
were said to have been torn from the rocks by the giants 
and hurlet I at their foes in battle. The stories of the 
very small p eople who once lived in this part of Europe, 

and «vhose descendants now live in Lapland, gave rise 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 57 

a belief in dwarfs. The flint arrow-heads of the Stone 
Age were said to be elf-darts used by the little spirits 
dwelling in woods and wild places, while the polished 
stone axes were thunderbolts. 

How all kinds of other myths, such as those accounting 
for the bear's stumpy tail, the robin's red breast, the 
crossbill's twisted bill, the aspen's quivering leaf, arose, 
I cannot now stay to tell you, nor how out of myths 
there grew the nm^sery stories and fairy tales which chil- 
dren never tire of hearing ; for we must now be starting on 
our voyage from the wonderful realm of fancy to the not 
less wonderful land of fact, whither science is ever bear- 
ing us. Nay, not less wonderful but more wonderful, 
since the fancies come from the facts, not the facts from 
the fancies. 



We have learnt that because man saw all natm*e to be 
in motion, he believed that life dwelt in all, that a spirit 
moved leaf, and cloud, and beast. Words now come in to 
tell us what in the course of time was man's notion about 
a spirit. The difference between a living and a dead 
man is this : the living man breathes and moves ; the 
dead man has ceased to breathe and is still. Now the 
word spirit means breath, and in the leading languages 
of the world the word used for soul or spirit is that 
which signifies breath or vjind. Frequently the soul of 
man is thought to be a sort of steam or vapor, or a 



58 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

man's shadow, which becoming unsettled causes him to 
be ill. The savage thinks that the spirit can leave the 
body during sleep, and so whatever happens to him in 
his dreams seems as real and true as if it had taken 
place while he was awake. If he sees some dead friend 
in his sleep, he believes either that the dead have come 
to him or that his spirit has been on a visit to his friend, 
and he is very careful not to wake anyone sleeping lest 
the soul should happen to be away from the body. Be- 
lieving that a man's soul could thus go in and out of his 
body, it was also thought that demons could be drawn 
in with the breath, and that yawning and sneezing were 
proofs of their nearness. So what is called an invocation 
was spoken to ward them oif, of which we have a trace 
in the custom of saying " God bless you " when anyone 
sneezes. 

According to an old Jewish legend, " The custom of 
saying ' God bless you ' when a person sneezes dates 
from Jacob. The Rabbis say that before the time that 
Jacob lived, men sneezed once and that was the end of 
them — the shock slew them. This law was set aside at 
the prayer of Jacob on condition that in all nations a 
sneeze should be hallowed by the words ' God bless 
you.' " 

Diseases were said to be caused, among other things, 
by the soul staying away too long from the body, and 
the bringing of it back is a part of the priest's or wizard's 
work. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 59 

All these ideas, crude as they are, have lived on 
among people long after they have risen from savagery, 
and in fact remain among us, although their first mean- 
ing is hidden, in such sayings as a man being "out of his 
mind," or "beside himself," or " come to himself." If 
the body has suffered any loss in limb' or otherwise, the 
soul is thought to be maimed too. And the belief that 
it will need, after it leaves the body, all the things which 
it has had here will explain the custom of killing wives 
and slaves to follow the deceased, and as among very 
low races lifeless things are said to have souls, of placing 
clothes, weapons, and ornaments in the grave for the 
dead person's use in another world. It is within a very 
few years that in Europe the soldier's horse that follows 
his dead master in the funeral procession was shot and 
buried with him. 

Man regarding himself as surrounded by spirits, 
dwelling in everything and all-powerful to do him good 
or harm, shaped his notions about them as they seemed 
to smile or frown upon him. 

Not only did he look upon sickness as often the work 
of demon-spirits, but in his fear he filled the darkness 
with ghosts of the dead rising from their graves, shriek- 
ing at his door, sitting in his house, tapping him on the 
shoulder, and breaking the silence with their whisthng 
tones. 



60 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

XXIV. BELIEF IN MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 

In the desire to ward off these unwelcome guests, man 
has made use of charms and magic arts and tricks of dif- 
ferent sorts. And there have always been those who, 
shrewder than the rest, have traded on the fears of the 
weak and timid, and professed to have power over the 
spirits or such influence with them as to di'ive them away 
by certain words or things. Medicine-men, rain-makers, 
wizards, conjurers, and sorcerers, these have abounded 
everywhere ; and even among us now there are found, 
under other names, people who think they have power 
with the unseen and know more about the unknown than 
has ever been or will be given to man to find out in this 
life. 

This belief in magical arts, which is so firmly rooted 
among the lowest tribes of mankind, has only within the 
last two hundred years died out among civilized people, 
and even lingers still in out-of-the-way places among the 
foolish and ignorant, who are always ready to see a 
miracle in every thing that they cannot understand. Out of 
it grew the horrid belief in witchcraft, through which it 
is reckoned nine millions of people have been burned ? 
Witchcraft spread with a belief in the devil, who, being 
looked upon as the enemy of God and man, was regarded 
as the cause of all the evil in the world, which he worked 
either by himself or by the aid of agents. It was held 
that p3r30o.s had sold than^^al^as to him^ ha in ratarii 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 61 

promising that they should lack nothing and should 
have power to torment man and woman and child and 
beast. If anyone, therefore, felt strange pains — if any 
sad loss came — it was the unholy work of witches. It was 
they who caused the withering storm ; the ruin to the 
crops ; the sudden death of the cattle; and when any- 
one pined away in sickness, it was because some old 
witch had cast her evil eye upon him, or made a waxen 
image of him and set it before the fire, that the sick man 
may waste away as it melted. The poor creatures who 
were charged with thus being in league with the devil 
were sought for among helpless old women. To have a 
wrinkled face, a hairy lip, a squint eye, a hobbling gait, 
a squeaking voice, a scolding tongue ; to live alone : 
these were thought proofs enough, and to such miserable 
victims torture was applied so cruelly that death was a 
welcome release. 

XXV. man's awe of the unknown. 

Since all that puzzles the savage puzzles us, we can 
feel with him, when he speaks of the soul as breath, of 
dreams as real, and, in hushed voice, of good and bad 
spirits around. 

To this day we have not, nor does it seem likely we 
ever can have, any clear idea about the soul. We have 
a vague notion that at death it leaves the body as a sort 
of filmy thing or shadow or vapor. English, Chinese, 
and Indians alike will keep some door or window open 



62 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

through which the departing soul may leave, and it is a 
German saying that a door should not be slammed lest a 
soul be pinched in it ! 

And our di'cams, wliich so many believe in as bringing 
faithful messages of joy and sorrow, seem to us so real 
and " true while they last." Even in the most foolish 
and baseless stories which are told about bells rung in 
haunted houses, and ghosts with sheeted arms in church- 
yards, there is, remember^, a witness to the awe in which 
man, both civilized and' savage, in every age and place, 
holds the unseen. 

For all that science tells us^bout the creatures that 
teem in a drop of water and in the little bodies that 
course with our blood, brings us no nearer the great mys- 
tery of life. The more powerful the microscopes we use, 
the more wonders — as we might rightly expect — do we 
see : but lij-e itself no glass will ever show us, and the 
soul of man no finger will ever touch. 

God has given to man a mind, that is, power to think 
and reason and remember, and with it time, place, and 
wish to use the gift. He, in \h% words of a great poet, 
^' wraps man in darkness and makes him ever long for 
light." As that which costs little is valued little, man 
would not have cared, had much knowledge been 
granted him at first, to strive after more; but be- 
cause he knows little, yet feels that he has the power 
to learn much, he uses the power in gaining increase 
of wisdom and knowledge, till he feels the truth of those 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 63 

very old words which say of wisdom, " She is more 
precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire 
are not to be compared unto her." 

XXVI. FETISH-W^ORSHIP. 

So far then w^e have seen how man seeks to explain 
what he sees around him, and the next thing we have to 
find out is, what is his first feeling towards it all ? It is to 
bow before it and worship the powers which seem stronger 
than himself. 

The very lowest form of worship is that paid to life- 
less things in which some virtue or charm is thought to 
dwell, and is called " fetish" worsliip, from a word mean- 
ing a charm. It does not matter what the object is ; it 
may be a stone of curious shape, the stump of a tree with 
the roots turned up, even an old hat or a red rag, so long 
as some good is supposed to be had, or some einl to be 
thwarted, through it. The worship of stones, about 
w^hich we may read in the Bible, prevails to this day 
among rude tribes, who have the j^trangest notions about 
them as being sometimes husbands and wives, sometimes 
\h^ dwelling-place of spirits. The confused ideas which 
cause the savage to look upon dreams as real cause him 
to confound the lifeless with the living, and to carefully 
destroy the parings off" his nails and cuttmgs of his hair, 
lest ' evil should be worked through them. The New 
Zealander would thrust pebbles do\\m the throat of a 
male child to make its heart hard. The Zulu chews wood 



64 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

that the heart of his foe or of the woman whom he loves 
may soften towards him even as the wood is being bruised. 
The dreadful practice of men eating human flesh is sup- 
posed to have arisen from the idea that if the flesh of 
some strong, brave man be eaten, it makes the eater 
strong and brave also. The natives of Borneo will not 
eat deer lest they should thereby become faint-hearted, 
and the Malays will give much for the flesh of the tiger 
to make them brave. If a Tartar doctor has not the 
medicine which he wants he will write its name on a 
scrap of paper and make a pill of it for the patient to 
take. A story is told of a man in Africa who was 
thought very holy, and who earned his living by writing 
prayers on a board, washing them off and selling the 
water. 

We may laugh at this, but whenever we say a verse 
out of the Bible, or gabble over the beautiful Lord's 
Prayer, because we think that in some mysterious way 
we get good by so doing, we are fetish-worshipers, and 
far below the poor savages I am telling you about, for we 
know that unless om^ hearts speak, no muttering of words 
can help us. 

XXVII. IDOLATRY. 

The customs of worshiping a fetish and of setting up 
an idol, although they may appear the same, are really 
very different, because when an idol is made it does not 
always follow that it is worshiped. The word " idol " 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 65 

comes from a Greek word meaning an image or form^ 
and sometimes the idol is treated as only an image of the 
god or gods believed in, and is not mistaken for the god 
itself. Unhappily it has more frequently been regarded 
as a god, and believed to hear prayer, to accept gifts, 
and have power to bless or curse. The materials out of 
which different races shape their gods show us what their 
ideas are. These may be mere bundles of grass or rudely 
daubed stones, or carved with the care and beauty dis- 
played in the household idols of the East. If the god is 
believed in as all-powerful, a huge image will be built, 
to which will be given a score of arms and legs, the head 
of a lion, the feet of a stag, and the wings of a bird. 
But it would fill a much larger book than this were I to 
tell you how in every age different nations have made 
and worshiped idols and what they have been like. 
Very many years will yet pass away before even in civil- 
ized countries people will learn that the great God has 
neither shape nor parts, and can never be looked upon, 
"seeing," as the good apostle Paul told the Greeks, 
"that He is Lord of heaven and earth, and dwelleth not 
in temples made with hands," and therefore is not "Hke 
unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's 
device." 

XXVIII. NATURE-WORSHIP. 

We have now" to lea^e tlie lifeless things in which poor 



66 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

savage man has found a god to hang round his neck or 
set up in his hut and learn a little about some of the 
living and moving things which are worshiped. 

Some learned men think that the worship of serpents 
and trees was the earliest faith of mankind. Others 
have thought that the sun, moon, stars, and fire were 
first worshiped. But it seems more likely that in differ- 
ent parts of the world men had different gods, and would 
at first worship the things nearest to them till they knew 
enough about them to lessen fear, and would then bow 
before those greater powers whose mysteries are hidden 
still. 

1. Water- Worship. The worship of water is very 
wide-spread and easy to account for — ^for what seemed 
so full of life, and therefore, according to early man's 
reason, so full of spirits, as rivers, brooks, and water- 
falls ? To him it was the water-demon that made the 
river flow so fast as to be dangerous in crossing, and that 
curled the dreaded whirlpool in which life was sucked. 
When one river-god came to be afterwards believed in, 
as controlling every stream, making it to flow lazily 
along or to rush at torrent-speed, it was believed to be 
wrong to save any drowning person lest the river-god 
should be cheated of his prey. 

Sacred springs, holy wells, abound everywhere to show 
how deep and lasting was water- worship. You have 
heard of sacred rivers, such as the Ganges, of which 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 67 

some beautiful stories are given in the sacred books of 
India, telling how it flows from the heavenly places to 
bless the earth and wash away all sin. 

2. Tree- Worship. The worship of trees is also very 
common. The Ufe that, locked up within them during 
the long winter, burst out in leaf and flower and fruit, 
and seemed to moan or whisper as the breezes shook 
branch and leaf, was that not also the sign of an indwell- 
ing spirit ? 

So, far later in time than the early nature-worship- 
ers, the old Greeks thought when they peopled sea and 
stream, tree and hill, with beings whom they called 
nymphs, telling of the goddesses who dwelt in the water 
to bless the drinkers, and of those who were born and 
who died with the trees in which they lived. And you 
have perhaps heard that the priests of the ancient relig- 
ion of tliis island held the oak-tree sacred and lived 
among its groves, as their name Druid, which comes 
from the Welsh word devw or the Greek drus^ both 
meaning an oak^ shows. 

3. Animal- Worship. Besides the worship of trees 
and rivers and other like things seen to have life or 
motion, the worship of animals arose in A^ery early 
times. The life in them was seen to be very different 
from that of the tree or river. The water swirled and 
foamed, the tree shook, the volcano hissed, but no eyes 

glistened from them, no huge claws sprang forth to tear. 

And the brute seemed so like to man in many things, 



68 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

and withal was so much stronger, that it must ha.ve 
a soul greater than the soul of man. 

As mastery over the brute was gained, the fear and 
worship of it died out here and there, but sacred animals 
play a great part in many religions. The kind of brute 
worshiped depended very much on the country in which 
man lived. In the far North he worshiped the bear and 
wolf, further South the lion and tiger and crocodile, and 
in very many parts of the world the serpent. So cun- 
ning and subtle seemed that long, writhing, brilliant- 
colored thing, so deadly was its poison-fang, so fascina- 
ting the glitter of the eye that looked out from its 
hateful face, that for long centuries it was feared and 
became linked in the minds of men as the soul of that 
Evil which early worked sorrow and shame among them. 

On this I cannot now dwell, but must go on to tell 
you that man's next step, rising from the worship of 
stones and brutes, was to believe in a class of great gods 
each ruling some separate part of nature or of the life of 
men. 



Thus instead of thinking only of a separate spirit as 
dwelling in every streamlet, he conceived of one river-god 
or water-god ruling all streams, or of one sea-god ruling 
every sea. I hope you are taking notice of the lesson this 
history has so far taught, that the more man began to 
think and to know, the more did he lessen the number 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 69 

of his gods. Thus arose belief in one god ruling the 
thunder, another tlie rain, another the wind, another the 
sun, and so on. 

As the best way of making quite clear to you the 
growth of belief in these great controlling beings, I will 
try and explain to you how the worship of the sun and 
moon began. 

There is nothing that would excite man's wonder at 
first so much as the fact that daylight was not always 
with him, that for a time he could see things around him, 
and then that the darkness crept over them and caused 
him to grope along his path or lie down to rest. 

Each morning, before the sun was seen, rays of light 
shot upward as if to herald his coming, and then he 
arrived to flood fiie earth with more light, growing 
brighter and brighter till the eye could scarce look upon 
him, so dazzling was the glory. Then as slowly he sank 
again, the light-rays lingering as they came until they 
passed away altogether. 

About all the other gifts which the sun is made to 
shed upon this and other worlds you m^j read in books 
on astronomy (such as Mr. Lockyer's Lessons in that 
science), and from those you may learn true wonder-tales 
describing how we are all what the Incas of South 
America were called, " children of the sun ;" here I am 
dealing with the sun as an object of worship only. 

Welcome as was the liglit given by moon and far-off 
stars, it was less sure than the sun's, and, although it re- 



70 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

lieved the gloom and darkness, could not chase night 
away. 

Therefore the natm^al feeling of man was to bow 
before this Lord of Light, and, in the earliest knov/n 
form of adoration, kiss his hand to it, paying it the offer- 
ing of sacrifice. There is an old story from some Jewish 
writings known as the Talmud, which describes very 
powerfully man's feeling concerning the darkness and 
the light. 

It relates that when Adam and Eye were driven out 
of the garden of Eden, they wandered over the face of 
the earth. And^ the sun began to set, and they looked 
with fear at the lessening of the light, and felt a horror 
like death steal over their hearts. And the light of 
heaven grew paler and the wretched ones clasped one 
another in an agony of despair. Then all grew dark. 
And the luckless ones fell on the earth, silent, and thought 
that God had withdrawn from them the light for ever ; 
and they spent the night in tears. But a beam of light 
began to rise over the eastern hills, after many hours of 
darkness, and the golden sun came back and dried the 
tears of Adam and Eve, and then they cried out with joy 
and said, " Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy 
Cometh in the morning ; this is a law that God hath laid 
upon nature." 

The worship of the heavenly bodies is not only very 
wide-spread but continued to a late age among the great 
nations of the past, as the names of their gods and the 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 71 

remains of their temples prove. In this island pillars 
were once raised to the sun, and altars to the moon and 
the earth-goddess, while the story of early belief is pre- 
served in the names given to some of the days of the 
week, as Smi-day, Mon- or Moon-day. 

Days were the most ancient division of time, and as 
the changes of the moon began to be watched they 
marked the weeks, four weeks roughly making up the 
month which was seen to elapse between every new 
moon. To distinguish one day from another, names 
were given ; and as it was a belief that each of the seven 
planets presided over a portion of the day, their names 
were applied to the seven days of the week. 

Our forefathers however consecrated the days of the 

week to their seven chief gods. Sunday and Monday to 

the sun and moon, as already stated ; Tuesday to Tuisco 

(which name, strange as it may seem, comes from the 

same word-root as Deity\ father of gods and men ; 

Wednesday \.oWoden or Odin^ one-eyed ruler of heaven 

and god of war ; Thursday to Thor^ the god of thunder ; 

Friday to Friga^ Woden's wife ; Saturday either to 

Seater^ a Saxon god, or to Saturn, We use the name 

for each month of the year which the Romans gave, but 

the Saxon names were very different, January being 

called the wolf-monat or wolf-month, March the lenet- 

Tuonatj because the days were seen to lengthen^ and so 
on. 

I should tell you that there [are countries where, be- 



72 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

cause the heat of the sun is so fierce as to scorch and 
wither plant and often cause death to man, he is not 
worshiped as the giver of the blessed light, but feared 
as an evil, malicious god. 

The worship of fire is usually found joined to that of 
sun, moon and stars. Fire gives light and warmth ; it 
seems, in its wonderful power to lick up all that is heap- 
ed upon it, like some hungry, never-satisfied demon, and 
is nearest of anything on earth to the great fire bodies 
in the sky. 



XXX. DUALISM, OR BELIEF IN TWO GODS. 

Man, as he came to think more and more about 
things, and not to be simply frightened into an unrea- 
soning worship of living and dead objects, lessened still 
further the number of ruling powers, and seemed to see 
two mighty gods fighting for mastery over himself and 
the universe. 

On the one hand was a power that appeared to dwell 
in the calm, unclouded blue, and with kind and loving 
heart to scatter welcome gifts upon men; on the other 
hand was a power that appeared to be harsh and cruel, 
that lashed the sea into fury, covered earth and sky with 
blackness, swept man's home and crops away in torrent 
and in tempest, chilled him with icy hand, and gave his 
children to the beast of prey. One a god of light, smil- 
ing in the sunbeam ; the other a god of darkness, scowl- 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WOELD. 73 

ing in the thundercloud ; one ruling by good and gen- 
tle spirits, the other by fierce and evil spirits. 

This belief in a good god opposed and fought against 
by a bad god became so deeply rooted that no religion 
is quite free from it, for it seemed to man the only ex- 
planation of the hurt and evil whose power he felt. 

But it is not true that the Almighty God in whom we 
are taught to believe is checked and hindered by anoth- 
er power. If He were. He would cease to be all-mighty, 
and we should have to pray to the evil power and be- 
seech him not to hurt us. 

The sin which is in the world, and about which your 
own heart tells you, has its birth in the will of man, 
which God in His sovereign wisdom has created free. 
Instead of making us as mere machines that cannot go 
wi-ong. He has given us the awful power of doing either 
good or evil, and thus of showing our love to Him by 
choosing what He loves and doing the things that are 
pleasing in His sight. However anxious we may be, as 
man has so often been, to cast the blame of vsTong-doing 
on another, the sins which we commit are our own willful 
work. This we know to be true because it is declared 
by that Voice vrithin each of us which does not lie, and 
which is the voice of the holy God. 

If we have power to break God's commandments, but 
not power to keep them, or if some imseen force, strong- 
er than ourselves, is allowed to drive us into evil, we 
could not have that sense of guilt which ever follows 



74: TtlE CHILDHOOD OF THE WOBiLt). 

sinning, because we should feel that the fault was not all 
our own, and that we should be wronged in being pun- 
ished^for what we could not help. Then that saddest of 
all states — distrust of God, distrust of His voice within — 
would be ours. 

But leaving this matter for a while, I have hitherto 
said little about the way in which man would seek to ex- 
press his feelings towards the gods in which he believed, 
be they few or many, good or bad. One way was by 
jpraying to them, another way by offering sacrifice to 
them. 

XXXI. PRAYER. 

To cry for help when we are in danger is our first act ; 
to ask for what we want from those who seem able and will- 
ing to give it is both natural and right. Thus man prayed 
to his gods, and prays still, for to the end of time the deep 
long cry of mankind to Heaven will continue. And rude 
and hideous as may be the idol to which the poor savage 
tells his story of need or sorrow, we must, remember, 
stand in awe as we think of the soul within him that 
hmigers for its food, even as the body hungers, and that 
yearns after the unseen God whom we call our Father in 
Heaven. Of course he prays in his ignorance for many 
weak and foolish things, to grant which would be really 
hurtful to him. In this he is hke children who ask their 
parents for something which those parents know is not 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 75 

good for them, and who think themselves hadly treated 
because they are denied it. 

As man gets more thoughtful and trustful, he prays^for 
better gifts than the things which perish, and, telling his 
wants and troubles to thQ All- wise Being, leaves it to 
Him to send whatever he may choose. 

*' in His decision rest, 
Secure whatever He gives, He gives the best." 

XXXII. SACRIFICE. 

The reason for offering sacrifices is explained by man's 
dealings with his fellow-man. 

When we feel that we have vexed our friends, or 
that for some cause they are angry with us, our first de- 
sire is to remove the anger by an offering of some 
kind ; w^hile towards those whom we love and feel grate- 
ful for their kindness, we show our love and thanks by 
gifts. 

In this way, sacrifices or offerings to idols, and to the 
seen and unseen powers of good and evil, began, and 
have continued in different forms among all nations to 
the present day; one sacrifice being offered from a feel- 
ing of thanksgiving, another as a bribe to quiet or ap- 
pease the gods thought to be angry, and who, being look- 
ed upon very often as big men, were supposed to be hu- 
mored like cross and sulky people. 

Of com^se men would offer the best of what they had, 
and would pick the finest fruits and flowers as gifts to the 



76 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

gods, or burn upon a raised pile of stones called an altar 
the most spotless of their flocks. And because the sur- 
render of the nearest and dearest was often thought ne- 
cessary to allay the anger, or secure the help, or ward off 
the vengeance of the god, the lives of the dear ones were 
offered, and this is one of the chief causes of the hideous 
and horrid rites which cui'dle one's blood to think about, 
and of which every land and every age have been the 
spectators. 

The blessed Father of all ^'is not a God of the dead, 
but of the living," and a Being who therefore loves not 
the sacrifice of blood and death. The sacrifice which is 
sweet to Him is that of hearts which, sorrowful for their 
sins and for grie\dng Him by wandering from His father- 
ly arms, are willing to give up their wi'ong-doings, and, 
casting out selfishness, in which so much e^dl lurks, to do 
His will on earth as it is done in heaven. Men are only, 
now slowly learning this great truth, although many cen- 
turies have passed away since it was first taught, because 
they have found it easier to profess certain beliefs or pay 
others to perform certain rites for them, than to strive 
day by day to obey the commandments of God. 

XXXIII. MONOTHEISM, OR BELIEF IN ONE GOD. 

Coming much nearer the time when the history of 
man's rehgious belief grows -clearer, we see that his 
ideas had become higher and nobler. 



THB CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 7Y 

It had at first seemed to him as if in heaven abov© 
and earth beneath naught but confusion reigned, but as 
the course of things became more carefully watched, it 
was seen that order, not disorder ; plan, not blind fate, 
ruled the universe. 

The storm which made havoc with the fruit of man's 
industry swept disease and foul air away; the fire that, 
uncontrolled, destroyed, was, when controlled, man's 
useful servant; the night that filled the air with bad 
spirits, lulled man to welcome rest ; the things which had 
been looked upon as cm^ses, turned out to be blessings, 
and much that seemed discord in nature was harmony to 
him who touched the chords aright. 

Man had at first worshiped that which was strongest^ 
and feared that which seemed likeliest to harm him 
most ; but as he grew in knowledge and wisdom, he 
came to worship that which was best. This arose from 
the feeling, which I have just described, that something 
else than crushing force was over all. We have seen 
that on man's first entrance into life he found it one con- 
tinued battle against forces of all kinds, and the only law 
that ruled was the law of might. He who could get 
a thing and keep it was entitled to it. Besides ability 
to defend himself by sheer force or cunning, man possess- 
ed the power of injuring and of doing wanton cruelty 
and mischief for its own sake, and of this power all his- 
tory shows us he made sad use. Lower in this than the 
beast which slays to satisfy its hunger, man killed bis 



78 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

fellow-man to satisfy his lawless ambition, and commit- 
ted ravages which centuries of labor have been unable to 
repair. But as the human family increased, it became 
clear that there would soon be an end to everything, did 
man continue using to the full this power to hurt, and 
plunder, and kill. Therefore to enable mankind to live 
together in peace and to progress, it was needful for 
them to feel that respect was due to the rights of others, 
and that it was necessary to do to them as they would 
wish to be done unto. If a man refused to agree to this, 
and in malice injured another, he was punished for 
breaking the rules which must be kept to make what is 
called society possible. But besides the sense of duty 
towards others, there was another and a deeper sense by 
which man felt that it was wrong to injure them. 

There is something within everyone, when called upon 
to choose between a better and a worse, which speaks in 
clear and certain tones. 

If we are tempted to do wrong, yet know to do right, 
from whence comes the knowledge ? If after each act 
of kindness, each duty faithfully done, there follows 
a blessed peace, from whence does it spring ? Sun and 
moon cannot be spoken of as knowing right from wrong, 
or as helping us to discern the difference. The stars of 
heaven and the stones of earth know nothing about 
duties, and are moved or kept still by other laws than 
the law of love. 

God is its source, and none other but He. 



THE OHILBHOOD OF THE WORLD. 79 

** His tbat gentle voice we hear, 

Soft as the breath of even, 
That checks each fault, that calms each fear, 

And speaks forgiven." 

Never, I beseech you, stifle Conscience, for when 
it speaks you are in the path of danger ; only when you 
are safe is it silent, yet none the less watchful, unsleep- 
ing. Never, I beseech you, try to displace that judge 
who never leaves his seat, but sits moment by moment 
weighing every thought and act in his balance. 

For that which we feel and know to be the highest 
law within us must, we rightly argue, dwell in perfection 
in Him whose authority thus makes itself heard by us. 
And since God's laws are the creatures of His love, it 
follows that to obey them is to dwell in love, and there- 
fore to dwell in God. 

So man, footsore and toilworn, came at last to rest in 
this, and to believe in One God and Father of all, 
" maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible 
and invisible," and to believe that " to love Him with all 
the heart is more than all whole burnt-offerings and 
sacrifices." 

In some such way as I have tried to show you did 
man arrive at this sublimest of all beliefs. But only a 
few out of the large human family are thus blessed ; the 
greater number still worship gods many, gods good, bad, 
and indifferent. 

Even where a belief in one God has been reached, 
He has at first been shaped in the mind after the fashion 



80 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

of a man. To the people dwelling in the cold, bleak 
North, he was the Thunderer ; to the people dwelling 
further South on the coast that bordered quiet waters 
and under sunny skies, he was the Beautiful; to the 
dweller in the plain, strong in soul and rough in dealing, 
he was a power walking on the wings of the wind, a 
being with the feelings and passions of a man. 

It needed great teachers who walked amidst the groves 
of beautiful Athens, and a greater still who sat wearied 
by a well in Samaria, to convey ideas of God which can- 
not be surpassed. 

And yet history tells us that in this as in other things 
nations have fallen back. They have forgotten God as 
the children of Israel did when, after receiving His com- 
mandment to worship no graven imagine, they shaped an 
idol like the sacred bull of the Egypt they had left. 

Just as there are savage races still in that Stone Age, 
which, I have shown you, was the beginning of progress, 
and which Europe has left thousands of years behind, 
so there are to be found races that have not risen above 
the lowest ideas about spirits in lifeless things. They 
show us what we were ; we represent what^ it is hojped^ 
• they may hecome. In believing this we gain trust that, 
since God has made nothing in vain, He will give to the 
poor and wild and ignorant to know in the hereafter, 
what, through no fault of theirs, has been hidden from 
them here. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 81 

XXXIV. THREE STORIES ABOUT ABRAHAM. 

Since the highest belief of any time is the belief of its 
highest minds, it is clear that in every age there have 
been men more far-seeing and thoughtful than their fel- 
low-men, who, feeling that this great, solemn life is giv- 
en for something nobler than eating and money-getting, 
asked themselves why they were at all ; whither they 
were going ; and from whence came what they saw 
around them. Of the holy lives with w^hich such men 
enriched the earth, and of the wise and beautiful thoughts 
in which they have recorded their search after truth, 
which is but another name for search after God, you will 
learn by and by ; but I want to redeem my promise and 
tell you a little about one of these men, earliest in his- 
toric time, who is thought to have laid hold of and given 
to us through others a belief in the One God. 

Abraham, for he it is whom I mean, was a native of 
the country called Chaldea. The clear sky of that East- 
ern land invited the people dwelling in it to the charm- 
ful study of the sun, moon, and stars, and they not only 
worshiped these bodies, but sought to foretell the fate 
of men from them. An ancient historian tells us that 
every Chaldean had a signet and staff bearing the sign of 
the planet or stars that were seen at his birth. Some have 
said that Ur, the city where Abraham was born, was a 
chief seat of sun-worship, and that its name means light 
or fire. We may safely say that Abraham's early years 



82 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

were spent among sun- worshipers, and it may interest 
you to know that his name and memory are held in high 
honor, not only by the Jews, but also by the Persians 
and Mohammedans. 

Among the stories about him which are preserved in 
certain ancient books are the following. 

Terah, the father of Abraham, was a maker and deal- 
er in idols. Being obliged to go from home one day, he 
left Abraham in charge. An old man came in and ask- 
ed the price of one of the idols. " Old man," said Abra- 
ham, ^' how old art thou ?" " Threescore years," answer- 
ed the old man. " Threescore years !" said Abraham, 
" and thou wouldst worship a thing that my father's 
slaves made in a few hours ? Strange that a man of sixty 
should bow his gray head to a creature such as that." 
The man, crimsoned with shame, turned away ; and then 
came a grave-looking woman to bring an offering to the 
gods. " Give it them thyself," said Abraham ; " thou 
wilt see how greedily they will eat it." She did so. Abra- 
ham then took a hammer and broke all the idols except 
the largest, in whose hands he placed the hammer. 
When Terah returned, he asked angrily what profane 
wretch had dared thus to abuse the gods. " Why," said 
Abraham, " during thine absence a woman brought yon- 
der food to the gods and the younger ones began to eat. 
The old god, enraged at their boldness, took the hammer 
and smashed them." " Dost thou mock thy aged fa- 
ther?" said Terah; "do I not know that they can neither 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 83 

eat nor move ?" " And yet," said Abraham, " thou wor- 
shipest them, and wouldst have me worship them too." 
The story adds that Terah, in his rage, sent Abraham to 
be judged for his crime by the king. 

Nimrod asked Abraham : You will not adore the idols 
of your father. Then pray to &e. 

Abraham : Why may I not pray to water, which will 
quench fire ? 

N'imrod : Be it so : pray to water. 

Abraham : But why not to the clouds which hold the 
water ? 

Nimrod: Well, then, pray to the clouds. 

Abraham, : Why not to the wind, which drives the 
clouds before it ? 

Nim^rod : Then pray to the wind. 

Abraham. : Be not angry, O Eang — I cannot pray to 
the fire or the water or the clouds or the wind, but to 
the Creator who made them : Him only will I worship. 

On another occasion, " Abraham left a cave in wliich 
he had dwelt and stood on the face of the desert. And 
when he saw the sun shining in all its glory, he was 
filled with wonder ; and he thought, ' Surely the sun is 
God the Creator,' and he knelt down and worshiped the 
sun. But when evening came, the sun went down in 
the west, and Abraham said, ^ No, the Author of crea- 
tion cannot set.' Now the moon arose in the east, and 
the stars looked out of the sky. Then said Abraham, 
' This moon must indeed be God, and all the stars are 



84 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

His host.' And kneeling down he adored the moon. 
But the moon set also, and from the east appeared once 
more the sun's bright face. Then said Abraham, ^Verily 
these heavenly bodies are no gods, for they obey law ; I 
will worship Him whose laws they obey.' " 

XXXV. man's belief in a future life. 

The rude beliefs about spirits and dreams and the cus- 
toms observed at burials show us that, however shape- 
less man's idea of another life may be, he has from the 
earl'est times believed that the spirit or breathy the ghost 
(which comes from the same root as gust)^ departs to 
dwell elsewhere when the body is cold and still in death. 
The highest and lowest races of men have tried to form 
some notion of what that blessed state is like where 
happiness is given to the good, where friends " loved 
long since and lost awhile," will, with smiling angel- 
faces, welcome us ; or what that dark state may be where 
misery and wanhope (despair) dwell. 

Man, in wondering what becomes of the spirit, has 
thought that it haunted the place where it once lived, or 
that it passed into some other body, perhaps into some 
animal, and then into higher and higher forms, until it 
reached the dwelling-place of the gods. 

He has placed his heaven in some far-off Island of the 
Blest, or in some sunny land, 

*' Deep meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawoB, 
And bowery hollows crowo'd with summer sea/* 



THE OHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 86 

or in the west where the 8iin sets, or in the sun, moon, 
and stars themselves. The pictm-es of it have been 
copied from the earth ; and all that he loves here, whether 
chaste or coarse, he hopes to have in larger measure 
there, even as he wishes to shut out from thence all that 
he dreads now. 

The best and brightest view of heaven is, leaving the 
rude idea of the savage far behind, to behold in every 
place on earth a fit spot whereon to kneel, to feel the 
sacredness of duty, and then we shall believe that all 
which we here know to be highest and noblest and best 
shall be ours in heaven, wherever that heaven may be. 
The thought that God's worlds are thus linked together 
is very beautifully touched upon in one of the old Per- 
sian sacred books. The soul of a good man is pictured 
as being met in the other world by a lovely maiden, 
"noble, with brilliant face, one of fifteen years, as fair in 
her growth as the fairest creatures. Then to her speaks 
the soul of the pure man, asking, ^ What maiden art thou 
whom I have seen here as the fairest of maidens in body V 
She answers, ' I am, O youth, thy good thoughts, words, 
and works, thy good law, the own law of thine own 
body. Thou hast made the pleasant yet pleasanter to 
me, the fair yet fairer.' "* 

And sinca all of us like to read hymns about heaven, 



* The whole of this beautiful story is given by Mr. Tylor in his " Primi- 
ttve Calture," vol. ii. p. 90, a work to which I am much indebted, and 
which should receive careful attention from every thoughtful person. 



86 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

here is one which I expect you have never seen before. 
It was written thousands of years ago by some great- 
souled Aryan, and is full of music that cannot die away : 

Where there is eternal light, in the world where the sun is placed, in that 
immortal, imperishable world, place me, O Soma ! 

Where king Vaivasvata reigns, where the secret place of heaven is, where 
these mighty waters are, there make me immortal ! 

Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are 
radiant, there make me immortal ! 

Where wishes and desires are, where the place of the bright sun is, where 
there is freedom and delight, there make me immortal ! 

Where there is happiness and delight, where joy and pleasure reside, 
where the desires of our desire are attained, there make me immortal I 



XXXVI. SACRED BOOKS. 

If this book has taught you nothing else, I hope it has 
taught you that the different beliefs of mankind about 
God are worthy of attention. 

Few of us will live here for more than sixty or seventy 
years ; and when we take off the time needed for eating 
and working and sleeping, there is not so very much 
left wherein to learn a little about the world in which we 
are sent to dwell. We do wisely to use some spare mo- 
ments in asking how other eyes have looked upon the 
beauty and the mystery around, and what it has said to 
their hearts. 

It is not so very long ago that good-meaning men 
looked upon the various religions of the world as almost 
beneath notice, or if studied at all, studied as proofs 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 87 

of man's hatred to the good and the true. But wiser and 
more thoughtful men felt that we ought to try and under- 
stand them, and see what kind of answ^^rs others have 
given to the questions about God, and the wide universe, 
and life and death, which we all ask. These answers 
may be feeble and dim, but since they are the best that 
could be had, they demand our respect. We do not 
make our own religion more true by calling other relig- 
ions false, nor do we make it worth less to us by ad- 
mitting the good that may be in them. And the lesson 
which even a slight knowledge of the sacred books of 
other faiths, some older than our own, and still believed 
in by hundreds of millions of mankind, teaches, is that 
God has never been without a witness among them. 
^These sacred books, which they look upon as His word 
to them, are as dear to them as our Bible is dear to us. 
In them are the precepts which they have been taught to 
obey, the prayers and hymns which have the full rich 
meaning age alone can give, and which no new words 
could bring. It is true that these books contain many 
silly stories, myths, legends, coarse ideas about God ; 
but from these no ancient book is free, and the errors 
that they contain do not make less true whatever of 
truth they hold. A diamond is not less a diamond be- 
cause we pick it out of a dust heap. 

Any account which I might give you of the different 
sacred writings would be chiefly a list of very long 
names, and it is better that I should prove the truth of 



88 THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 

what has been said by quoting some hymns and prayers 
from them. 

The hymn about heaven comes from the very old sacred 
book of the Brahmans ; here is part of another hymn 
from the same : 

In the beginning there arose the source of golden light. 

He was the only born Lord of all that is. 

He stablished the earth and this sky ; who is the God to whom we shall 
offer onr sacrifice ? 

He who gives life, He who gives strength ; whose blessing all the bright 
gods desire ; whose shadow is immortality ; whose shadow is death. 

Who is the God to whom we shall offer sacrifice ? 

He who through His power is the only King of the breathing and awak- 
ening world ; He whose power these snowy mountains and the sea and 
distant river proclaim. 

He through whom the heaven was established— nay, the highest heaven; 
He who measured out the light in the air. 

This hymn-prayer is from the same book. VarunA, 
the god addressed, was one of their cliief gods, and 
means the "Surrounder:" 

Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay. Have mercy, 
Almighty, have mercy ! 

Through want of strength, have I done wrong; Have mercy, Almighty, 
have mftrcy ! 

Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offense before the heavenly 
host, whenever we break the law through thoughtlessness, have mercy, 
Almighty, have mercy ! 

Here are some precepts from one of the sacred books 
of the Buddhists, which would find a fit place in our own 
beautiful Book of Proverbs : 

Conquer anger by mildness, evil by good, falsehood by truth. 
Be not desirous of discovering the faults of others, but zealously guard 
against your own. 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 89 

Hft is a more noble "warrior 'vrho entducs himself, than be who in battle 
conquers thousands. (Compare with this ProYerbs xvi. 82.) 

To the virtuous all is pure. Therefore think not that going unclothed, 
fasting, or l^ing on the ground, can make the impure pure, for the mind 
will Btill remaiQ the same. 

I believe that Jesus Christ would say to every Brah- 
man and Buddhist who strove to obey these precepts, 
the words which fell cheer ingly upon the Jewish lawyer's 
ear, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." 



XXXVn. CONCLUSION. 

Histories are often so made up of dates, giving the 
years when kings began to reign, when they died, and 
when famous battles wei*e fought, that I dare say this 
early history of man, which has scarcely a date in it, 
seems a rather vague and confused story. 

But we have been traveling through ages so vast, that 
I might have confused you still more if I had spoken of 
years the number of which none of us can grasp, and put 
down guess-work figures with long rows of ciphers after 
them. 

It is through that twilight time of which I told you in 
the first pages of this little book that I have sought 
to take you. I have guessed as little as possible, and 
brought common sense to interpret the story which 
bones, fiint knives, metal weapons, picture-writings, 
words, and other things contain, seeing in it a tale of 



90 THE CHILDHOOD Of'tHE WORLD. 

progress, slow but sure, which began at the beginning of 
time, and will go on until time shall cease to be. 

I wish I could have made that story appear as beauti- 
ful and fascinating to you as it is to myself, but I 
thought it better told even roughly than not told at all. 

The facts of science are not, as some think, dry, life- 
less things. They are li\dng things, filling with sweet- 
est poetry the ear that hstens to them, and with fadeless 
harmony of colors the eye that looks upon them. 

They not only give us these higher pleasures which 
endure, but they bring daily bread and health and com- 
fort to thousands, who but for knowledge of them would 
have lived pitiful lives. 

I am offering you good counsel in advising you to use 
a certain portion of your time in studying one branch of 
science. It matters not which you choose so far as won- 
der, beauty and truth are concerned, for astronomy, bot- 
any, chemistry, geology, alike possess these in such 
abundance that life will be too short to exhaust them. 

"With the mind thus stored, many an hour, otherwise 
dull, will be " filled with music ;" many a star-lit night, 
otherwise unheeded, will shine with familiar lights ; 
many a landscape, bald and ugly to the unseeing eye, 
marked with lines of beauty traced by its Maker's hand. 
And if God, as I think this story shows, has chosen 
that man's progress shall largely depend upon himself, 
how careful should we be to do nothing that will be a 
hindrance. Our knowledge is no blessing to us, unless 



THE CHILDHOOD OF THE WORLD. 91 

we have learned to use it well and wiselj^, and learned 
too that with it only, life is not complete. If, dealing 
with the " things we see," it walk hand in hand with 
faith in the unseen, these two shall make life beautiful 
and blessed. 

God gives thee youth but once. Keep thou 
The childlike heart that will His Kingdom be ; 

The soul pure-eyed that, wisdom-led, e'en now 
His blessed face shall see. 



THE end. 



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